Pretoria - Though strides have been made in empowering women, many are still marginalised, said President Jacob Zuma.
"While our Constitution is regarded as one of the most progressive in the world, our challenge is to realise the rights it envisages. We know that the majority of women continue to face marginalisation and discrimination in their homes, workplaces and communities," said the President on Monday.
This was part of the President's message on Commonwealth Day, which is this year celebrated under the theme Women as Agents of Change.
Zuma said women can no longer be underestimated and reduced to traditional stereotypes, which limit their role and capabilities.
"In South Africa, we are acutely aware of the multiple and aggravated forms of discrimination which our women havesuffered over centuries. Today, it is a well-known fact that South African women led the campaign for social change and played their role as agents for change in our country heroically," said Zuma.
The President said what was left was for SA to improve conditions to ensure that women are at the centre and are beneficiaries of the dividends of democracy. This included the need for the right to education for the girl child, practical empowerment of rural women and the appointment of women in key leadership and management positions.
"We are working hard to ensure that the corporate sector becomes an important partner in our initiatives towards the empowerment of women. The special situation of rural women is of particular importance.
"As a silent majority, these women play a significant role in economic subsistence, survival of the family, provision of food and shelter, to name but a few responsibilities they must, of necessity, undertake," said Zuma, adding that they must have equal access to land, water, credit, technology, education and health services.
Zuma also noted that in the past 10 years, the number of impoverished people has increased.
"It has increased dissapropriately for women, particularly in the developing countries, and that includes South Africa. The feminisation of poverty is a global phenomenon because despite the real strides that have been made by women, there is an overarching failure to mainstream a gender perspective into all political, economic and social transformation processes."
Equality for women was important for both men and women and was essential to the long term development of South Africa, Zuma said, adding that government alone did not have the resources to address all these issues.
"Co-operation with the private sector in a number of areas is therefore essential if women are to be fully empowered in all sectors, whether economic or political. We urge all South Africans today to increase their awareness of the role that all women play as agents of change," said Zuma.
