Pretoria-Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng says the time has come for women lawyers and Judges to be more vocal than before about their empowerment in the legal fraternity.
“In South Africa, the higher percentage of law students are women and they often perform better than their male counterpart….in the academia, I’ve also seen some improvement, but the key question to ask is why is that the numbers are low at the level of attorneys, why is the numbers low particularly at the echelons of the profession, now what is it that we need to do to correct this situation?
“I appeal to progressive women to be more vocal than they have ever been on issues relating to the empowerment of women practitioners, women Judges and women in academia. I believe this is a cause that women must champion,” he said.
Chief Justice Mogoeng was speaking at the International Association of Women Judges-Africa Regional Conference at the University of South Africa (Unisa) on Saturday.
Mogoeng said women lawyers are struggling to in the industry because of the myth that women are by nature less capable of what men can do. “Irrespective of how good you are as a woman lawyer, you can’t be given a work because of the belief that women are less capable than men, especially in the legal field and I really don’t where it comes from,” he said.
He said that all nations have demonstrated less enthusiasm than they should have for gender equality, but most African countries have made some progress with regard to women empowerment.
“African countries have made some progress, given our background as countries that have never enjoyed freedom like those who are known to be the leading democratic countries in the world. In the Kingdom of Lesotho the Chief Justice is a woman, Nigeria, Zambia and Ghana are some of the African countries that have made great strides in terms of women empowerment in the legal fraternity,” he said.
Mogoeng urged the delegates from South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Cameroon, and Nigeria lead the labour relation struggle for their own freedom. - SAnews.gov.za
