Plenty of opportunities for women, says Zille – The Star

Why I believe in South Africa was the topic of guest speaker Hellen Zille at a Women of the World’s breakfast held in Sandton in honour of women’s month. “The World Cup changed the image of South Africa. Even the sceptics were surprised. We had powerful leaders and the people of South Africa chose to lead them. I believe in optimism. I was personally told by a top ranking official that the games in Cape Town were the best in the world, beating even Germany,” she said.

This article may be used to:
– Highlight the socio-economic situation facing many South African women today
– Show the sex-based unemployment gap
– Call for structures to support legislation aimed at promoting and protecting women’s rights
– As an example of an article which fails to probe the reasons behind girls getting pregnant while at school

Headline

While the headline “Plenty of opportunities for women, says Zille” is encouraging and sends out a hopeful and positive message, the article presents a somewhat different picture.

Story angle/ Perspective
The article focuses on a different range of issues affecting women today, namely their socio- economic and political situation. The article draws attention to the extent to which women are still far from parity in the workplace. According to the article women hold only 221 of the 3135 directorship positions in South Africa. This is clearly a major source of concern; however the article misses an opportunity to interrogate this further. The article should have explored the reasons behind women’s lagging behind in the workplace. Leaving this area unexplored creates an impression that this is either “normal” or that women are simply lazy and do not have the ambition and the determination to rise through the ranks. The workplace is still sexist, favouring men over women and does not recognise social and economic issues keeping women down.

Furthermore, the article notes the uneven employment rates and again fails to give reasons why there are fewer women than men in employment.

The article quickly moves on to state that the guest speaker at the breakfast dubbed “Women of the World” criticised government and some corporatations for appointing women in top positions merely to fill quotas. This, following on the heels of a statement that women still lag behind in leadership, creates an impression that they do not have what it takes to lead.

The article takes a pedestrian approach to women who involve themselves in unprotected sex with multiple partners, while it is indeed true that some engage in such risky behaviour because they are simply irresponsible, the article fails to look at the unequal sex relations between men and women, especially where women from difficult backgrounds who are forced into transactional sex are concerned. These women are not always in a position to negotiate for safer sex and sex always happens on the terms of the paying client, and because of their financial circumstances they also find themselves being forced to have sex with a lot of partners. The article also fails to talk about the dangers of unprotected sex with multiple partners, which include sexually-transmitted infections, HIV and AIDS and unwanted pregnancies.

The article talks about a incentive in the Western Cape to give bursaries to girls who do not fall pregnant while still at school. While the incentive is noble, it creates an impression that girls who fall pregnant while at school are irresponsible, but ignores a fundamental fact that it takes a man and a woman to produce a baby. Boys, because of their biological make up, can never fall pregnant, hence it is not fair to deny girls an opportunity of furthering their education because of this.

Sources
The article largely sources the Mayor of Cape Town and leader of the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille, who is referred to by her name not her position. One wonders whether if she had been a man this omission would have been made. Even if she had not been invited to speak on politics this omission takes away from her as a leader of the largest opposition party in the country.

Training exercises
– Discuss the potential dangers of naming and shaming maintenance defaulters to their children.

Other Gender links related articles
– Gender pay gap stretches across the globe

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