Women’s participation in politics has improved - Commission

While the country has made “significant strides” in placing women in positions of power in government‚ the majority hold “soft positions”.

This is according to a report released on Thursday by the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE). The report titled‚ From Rhetoric to Gender Equality: Women’s Participation and Representation in South Africa’s 2014 elections is the third one since the commission initiated its programme of monitoring the country’s elections to assess progress relating to gender equality.

The commission’s chairman‚ Mfanozelwe Shozi who was presenting the report at the organisation’s offices in Braamfontein‚ said it was based on findings of the observation of the 2014 national and provincial elections and assessed six political parties.

These are the African National Congress (ANC)‚ the Congress of the People (Cope)‚ United Democratic Movement‚ Vryheidsfront Plus (FF+)‚ Inkatha Freedom Party and Democratic Alliance (DA).

“…the observation work carried out by CGE staff sought to determine if women faced any systematic constraints and disadvantages in terms of exercising their right to participate in politics…‚” he said.

The CGE observed and analysed the lists of candidates of the parties.

According to the report‚ analysis of the ANC in its party nomination lists revealed that it was committed to gender equality “even adopting the zebra stripe strategy of placing a female candidate for each male candidate in the party’s nominations lists”.

This approach‚ however‚ is not always “unerringly” followed.

The CGE found that while the DA focused attention on positive development of women leading the party at national and provincial level‚ it had also focused negative attention on other areas where perceptions persist that it is largely reluctant to advance women to positions of authority and leadership.

Cope’s manifesto lacked “direct and major long-term commitments to gender mainstream and transformation”.

The FF+ was found to be the party with the lowest level of representation for women as election candidates.

The CGE also noted that in the past two decades the country had made progress in terms of placing women in the Cabinet.

However‚ despite the “observed positive trend‚ the majority of women in the national Cabinet continue to occupy the so-called ‘soft portfolios’ such as health‚ education‚ social welfare‚ housing…” the report said.

Of the 15 portfolios occupied by women in the national Cabinet after the 2014 elections‚ nine are sectors “traditionally” perceived to be typically suited for women‚ and only six are not.

“The CGE believes that…political parties should use their election manifestos to ensure that gender mainstreaming is promoted‚” the report read.

Political Analyst Steven Friedman said he did not agree that women only held “soft positions”.

“It doesn’t strike me as a valid comment. We’ve had a woman deputy president‚ a [woman] labour minister‚ and defence minister.

“The question one could ask is whether the political parties are taking women as seriously as they should.”

He said that the CGE was making a valid point in saying the political parties should use their party nomination process to ensure gender mainstreaming.

However‚ Friedman said it would be pointless to rely on parties to use their election manifestos to achieve the same as these were not taken seriously.