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Address by COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi at Launch of the CGEWorking Women's ManualCommission on Gender Equality, 17 February 2000 |
Chairperson
I am deeply honoured by the invitation of the Commission on
Gender Equality at this august conference on gender and
Private Sector – promoting a culture of equality. The launch of the
manual on working women is welcomed by COSATU.
It is not good enough to have rights enshrined in law, if people are
not aware of those rights. Part of our campaign to create a better
society must be about educating people on what their rights are. It is
this context I think this manual will be an important contribution, as
long as it does not end up collecting dust in our boardrooms and
offices. There have been a number of important reforms to labour
legislation and a number of significant rights have been won by the
working women of our country. Our challenge is to ensure that these
rights serve to fundamentally change the lives of women.
Women workers continue to occupy lower graded levels in the
workplace, where they face marginalisation, discrimination,
exploitation, harassment and abuse – this manual can play a role in
informing these women of their rights and giving them options for
changing the situation they find themselves in. Many women in
employment are not organised into trade unions because they find
themselves in vulnerable sectors such as the domestic workers,
informal sector, casualised and subcontracted sectors, which are
difficult to organise. If this manual can be made accessible and
available to them it will be an extremely important intervention.
Many of the interventions dealing with gender equality in the
workplace focus on the management level and favour white middle
class women, and a more privileged section of black women, leaving
the most marginalised and vulnerable women to fend for themselves.
This manual targets working class women – those that are organised
by COSATU and those that are unorganised – but significantly those
women in the workforce that are often the last to benefit from
legislative change as a result of their socio-economic position.
The levels of poverty and unemployment in this country place
downward pressure on wages and working conditions – the rights of
working women that have been fought for need to be jealously
guarded and defended. This working manual will make a significant
contribution in this ongoing struggle.
Women have borne the brunt of the social costs of the changes in
the world economy such as globalisation, increased international
competition, structural adjustment and the trend towards
deregulation of the labour market. Women tend to be negatively
affected by the precariousness of employment, deterioration of the
quality and conditions of work, and the reduction of resources for
social protection.
Women continue to face stereotypes and discrimination in the
workplace, they tend to occupy the lowest paid and lowest status
sectors of the workforce. There are clear disparities in wages and
salaries based on race and gender. According to the October
Household Survey (1995) the average African woman employee's
earnings were only 43% of the average white woman employee, and
a mere 26% of the average white male employee. Women are also
seriously affected by unemployment. More than half of African
women that are considered economically active are unemployed.
Globally, women make up the bulk of the army of “flexible”, cheap
workers sought after by employers anxious to maximise their profits.
Women, more than men, are also the victims of the acceleration of
the technological race, in the sense that certain traditional female
jobs such as office work, assembly line work, or manual agricultural
tasks have become obsolete. As these jobs disappear women find
themselves with little choice but to earn a living through various
forms of atypical work, such as temporary or casual work, at home
or for subcontractors. In South Africa, there is already a significant
trend of home-working in the clothing sector and casualisation in the
retail and other sectors. In most cases, these jobs are badly paid,
providing few opportunities for training and no real career
prospects. Most are also forms of work that fall outside of the law,
collective agreements and social security systems.
Although women as a whole face various forms of gender
discrimination, there is marked segmentation amongst women
themselves, based on race and class. Women that have had
access to education as a result of racial and/or class privileges are
able to take advantage of labour legislation, for example Employment
Equity. However, black working class women face tremendous
barriers in the workplace and society. Daily life is about survival,
facing the grim prospects of retrenchment, casualisation, dismissal
as a result of pregnancy, low or no cash maternity benefits, sexual
harassment, including the horrifying and humiliating practice of jobs
for sex. Take for example the life of a black woman worker, who
comes home after a day of hard work as a cleaner with heavy
machinery and chemicals – she is faced with the responsibility of
domestic labour, often referred to as the double burden – she must
cook, bath the children and generally take care of the needs of
those around her. Some women in the unions have coined a new
concept known as “the third shift” – after wearing herself out
physically and emotionally at work and then at home a woman is
expected to take care of her husband's sexual and emotional needs.
In some homes the picture is particularly desperate, where women
are faced with violence and abuse.
Given this picture, which is the reality of life for many South African
women, it is important to be welcoming the launch of an intervention
that can potentially offer hope and empowerment to women, that can
offer them strategies and information which enables them to find
ways out of the situations they are faced with.
The situation of women workers and gender equality is a complex,
multifaceted and crosscutting issue, which requires an integrated
strategy on the economic, legal, social and political fronts.
A cautionary note that should be made is that to benefit from
interventions like this manual women need to be employed. Given
the massive retrenchments in the economy, more and more women
are being pushed out of the labour market. According to the
recently released report from Andrew Levy 1 million jobs have been
lost since 1994. COSATU believe that it is possible and in fact
imperative that the government can facilitate and directly contribute
to job creation. For example, massive public works programme
could contribute to much needed development of infrastructure and
extension of services, whilst providing skills and creating jobs at the
same time. The public works programmes that have been
implemented albeit on a very small scale have taken important steps
in targeting women for employment. Furthermore, the development
of infrastructure and services can have a very real impact on
reducing women's reproductive labour. Other interventions that
could make a significant impact in this regard include a basic
income grant, which we would strongly support.
Finally, the approach to job creation that relies on the development
of the informal sector is also, in our view, likely to further exacerbate
the inequalities that exist. Firstly, there is no real evidence to prove
that the informal sector is creating jobs significantly, and secondly
the jobs that are created are primarily in the survivalist sector –
surely not the kind of working conditions that we want to be
promoting. The result is that vulnerable workers, particularly women,
will be subjected to harsher exploitation and abuse. Despite this
harsh reality, there are attempts to deregulate small business,
making the position of women workers in this sector even more
vulnerable.
Therefore, the greatest challenge that we face is the practical
implementation of the provisions and rights that exist. This requires
creative and innovative strategies, including educational measures,
training, legal literacy programmes, positive action and enforcement
measures, organisation of women in trade unions and community
organisations; and concrete strategies and allocation of resources
by government to improve the socio-economic position of women.
As trade unions we face a number of challenges in ensuring that
women are well represented and empowered. We are focusing on
a number of areas, including building women's leadership, building
gender structures, engendering the collective bargaining agenda
and developing strategies and approaches to organising the
unorganised. This manual will be particularly useful in the
organisational building process that we are taking up, including a
significant commitment to training Shop Stewards and to education
on gender issues. We would certainly appreciate benefiting from
any programmes and initiatives that are planned for training of Shop
Stewards and workers around the content of this manual.
We are aware that a lot need to be done in all of these areas, and
we reaffirm our commitment to this struggle. We will need continued
engagement and interaction with the Commission on Gender
Equality and other institutions and organisations.
Thank you again for the honour.
Socio-economic realities
A comprehensive approach
Challenges facing trade unions
