Celebrating Women

By Sherole Webster

Being a woman means to be a shoulder to cry on, a sister, a daughter, a partner and a friend too. It also means to be strong and proud and a force to be reckoned with in the corporate world.

International Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th of March and it highlights how far women have come socially, politically and in the business world, but also looks at how far they still need to go in order to achieve equality across the globe. In South Africa, we celebrate National Women’s Day on the 9th of August. On this day we celebrate the women in our country who stood united and fought for the rights that many of us are fortunate enough to have today.

August 9th 1956 marked a turning point for South African women. Women from all walks of life united and demanded equal treatment and the revocation of the passbook law. They were noticed and heard and their strength and resilience led to them achieving what they had set out to achieve, politically and socially.

Women have come a long way. We are not expected to be ‘marginslised and occupy stereotypical positions’ anymore and neither are we considered to be politically inept; however, there is still a very long way to go. The rights of Women in the workplace has improved, but these rights have not protected them from other issues in the work place. Women have the right to choose whether or not to be married and have children, but this right has not protected them from societal ridicule or mistreatment.

Today women should unite in much the same way as those who fought for our freedom. The animosity between women should be shelved in order to create a strong bond that cannot be shaken. The Twars (Twitter wars) over natural hair versus weaves and natural beauty versus make-up should be put to rest as there are bigger issues that face women today. It is in the hands of the women of South Africa to make their voices heard; to show that their collective strength has not diminished and that the fight for equality has not ceased.

Let the words from that fateful day continue to ring true through the ages: “You strike a woman, you strike a rock!”