The Minister in the Presidency for Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane will officially launch Women’s Month 2021 during a virtual media briefing. The Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities will be joined by The Departments of Sport, Arts and Culture and Social Development.

The virtual media briefing will allow the opportunity to announce and unpack the theme and focus areas for the month. The theme and focus areas will guide national conversations, and influence programmes targeted at ending inequality and driving women empowerment initiatives.

Minister Nkoana-Mashabane will also reveal the Call To Action to the nation as a campaign to galvanise society in its collective response to gender inequality and realising women’s rights.

Women’s Month 2021 takes place in the context of the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF). The recent civil unrest has also had an impact on women, particularly in the world of work where small businesses have been forced to close. We are constantly reminded that women are disproportionately affected by any crisis and recent major events have resulted in intersecting inequality vectors impacting on the lives and livelihoods of women.

Women’s Month is observed every year to:

• End gender discrimination and advance the rights of women and girls in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres of life;

• Promote meaning and understanding of the significance of the month and national day;

• Reflect on the women who have served as role models in all the facets of life in South Africa in the past and present with focus on Charlotte Mannya Maxeke;

• Confront the challenges that women continue to face today and possible solutions that could be used to remove such challenges in particular poverty and financial exclusion; and health exclusions.

• Foreground opportunities that are available for women and seek ways through which women can access thus moving women from poverty to generational wealth

Source: Government of South Africa