9 August 1956. 20 000 women, representing the voices of over 100000 women who signed petitions marched to the Union Buildings in protest against the extension of pass laws to women who were categorised as black. Bundles of petitions were left at the door of Prime Minister Strijdom’s office, and thereafter the women stood in silence outside for 30 minutes, promoting an ideology of non-violence. The pass laws regulated freedom of movement and migrant labour, and promoted segregation. The impact of this law was that families were deprived of the basic right to live together as a stable family unit. To commemorate this march, and pay tribute to the other forerunners of the women’s movement in South Africa, the first National Women’s Day was celebrated in 1995 (National Women’s Day, 2022; Schmidt, 2019).
Over the years the historical significance of Women’s Day has become somewhat diluted, with this day now focusing on celebrating women as well as highlighting present-day challenges that South African women still need to grapple with. Despite the strides made in narrowing the gap between men and women in all spheres of work and society, women are still confronted with gender-based challenges and atrocities, and these have been compounded by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The consequences of lockdown varied across genders. Women reverted to traditional gender roles assuming responsibility for childcare and domestic chores while still working remotely, and gender-based violence (GBV) emerged as a shadow pandemic. One vital skill that appeared to be critical to surviving the pandemic was resilience. Within this context, it is apt that the theme for Women’s Day and month in 2022 is ‘Women’s Socio-Economic Rights and Empowerment: Building Back Better for Women’s Improved Resilience’ (Women’s Day, 2022).
The empowerment of women is a complex phenomenon that demands a comprehensive cross-cutting approach. As mental healthcare practitioners and researchers, we are essential and indispensable in the construction of resilience in multiple systems. Whether we are working with individuals in consultation rooms, empowering groups, and communities, addressing employees and processes in organisations, facilitating developmental programmes with learners and students, or conducting research, we have the potential to enhance resilience at various levels. Through influencing policies and creating and implementing high-impact individual and systemic interventions, professionals in the field of psychology may alter narratives, skills and behaviours.
We need to actively contribute to transforming our system to a space where it will never again be said that a woman is lucky to have been raped by only one man.
References
National Women’s Day – August 9, 2022 (2022). National Today Retrieved from https://nationaltoday.com/national-womens-day/
Schmidt, E.S. (June 10, 2019). African Women`s Resistance to the Pass Laws in South Africa 1950-1960. South African History Online. Retrieved from https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/african-womens-resistance-pass-laws-south-africa-1950-1960-elizabeth-s-schmidt
Women’s Day 2022 (2022). South African Government. Retrieved from https://www.gov.za/WomenDay2022#:~:text=We%20will%20celebrate%20this%20year’s,achieve%20gender%20equality%20by%202030
‘Still I Rise’ – Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.