National Women’s Day À“ a reminder of women’s social capital

Just imagine the amount of planning and organising that went into this event. Besides the coordination of the event itself, most of these women were mothers, sister, employees and every other role that women play in life.

Some had to organise where the kids would stay after school and prepare supper early, just in case they would get home later than planned. Some nannies brought the white children they looked after along to the march. Moreover, all this without cell phones and 3G, mind you.

So this led me to thinking: whatever happened to the social capital among us as women? Whatever happened to collective action as women, planning events and activities that can bring about positive social change?

Robert Putman defined Social Capital as the working product of interpersonal networks, contact, knowledge and related human resources. Taken together, these are valuable assets that individuals and groups (like communities, and yes us as women too) can use to address a wide range of needs and interests. Social capital can act as a counterweight to the negative effects of such challenges facing us as globalisation, unemployment, crime, substance abuse, uneven access to new information, resources, etc. and even gender inequality.

These collective assets are often found among women (and other socially excluded groups) À“ usually because of a notion of solidarity, particularly based on causes and a shared identity. Collective action (social capital) among women could vary from small initiatives to stop the abuse and brutal killings of young children within a particular community, to global mass movements organised to advance women’s rights and leadership.

In Southern Africa, saving groups provide a good example of social capital among women. Often comprised mainly of poor women, such groups save and lend small amounts of money on a daily basis, thereby strengthening trust, solidarity, and collective identity. In many communities, women’s groups are able to develop solidarity networks that transcend ethnicity, race, sex, gender and economic survival.

What about convincing ABSA and to start a saving group for “career women?À Maybe have them throw in monthly high teas as well to “review investments.À As long as we women can get together and unite in our daily struggles, despite our socio-economic status, it will contribute to our social capital.

Think back to the women leading the August 9, 1956 march, Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams À“ De Bruyn À“ it was all about positive, mutually beneficial social change. Governments have traditionally treated organised action as a threat to the state (like the march of 9 August 1956), yet today they are increasingly keen on popular participation as a cause of growing peace and reconciliation in the communities.

Governments and all sectors of society recognise the positive role played by social capital, using planning and budgeting instruments to open up decision-making and to include marginalised sections of society.

Social divisions of gender, age, and class closely relate to the unequal distribution of civic resources, including the distribution of time, money, knowledge, and skills, which facilitates participation in voluntary associations and social networks. These issues should make us as women want to get involved and get organised.

Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart ask the question; if associational life carries certain benefits, is membership distributed equally across society, including among women as well as men? They go on to identify two main types of inequality i.e. vertical segregation: differences in the density of associational membership held by men and women and horizontal segregation, contrasts in the type of associations involving men and women.

We often find that more men are represented in certain types of networks (vertical À“ leadership positions) and men hold the positions of power more than women do. Certain networks are considered women’s i.e. soup kitchens, saving clubs, book clubs, etc. In many instances, men use their social networks to exclude, i.e. they use their negative social capital to exclude women from their “brotherhoodsÀ and fraternities.

Yet there is hope, hope for us as women, because of the way we known how to organizs. We have a history of doing it well. I’m often in awe of women with children and who juggle a career at the same time. And yes, I do consider living in a rural area and ensuring production of food, holding the household together, etc a job, a career actually. They remind me of that day, and why it took place. What a capacity women have for multi-tasking!

Although there are still many challenges women face within communities and contexts, be it at home, work, wherever, the social capital we have amongst us has a very positive role to play in encouraging the building of social networks that are diverse, inclusive and representative. So I am hope that with this piece I “struck a rock,À and we know what happens when we “strike a rockÀ don’t we? À“ think 9 August 1956…