The Struggle Continues: Women in the workplace and the fight for equality
- bongiwe53
- Aug 27
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 1
Every year in August, South Africa pauses to remember the courage of the women who marched before us. In 1956, 20 000 women stood outside the Union Buildings, not only rejecting unjust pass laws but defying the deeply entrenched belief that women should remain silent, submissive, and invisible. Nearly seven decades later, their courage still echoes, urging us to ask: What are we doing with the legacy they left?
While we celebrate their defiance, the struggle for women’s liberation is far from over. Across workplaces, boardrooms, and political spaces, systemic inequalities persist. Women continue to face barriers that limit their advancement, recognition, and participation in shaping societies.
Patriarchy and Leadership Barriers
One of the most stubborn obstacles is patriarchy. Our society still entertains questions like, “Are we ready for a woman president?”, a question never asked of male leaders. This mindset filters into parliaments, boardrooms, media houses, and even homes, where leadership is still imagined as masculine.
The result is underrepresentation. South Africa continues to struggle with gendered representation in parliament and political parties, while across the continent the picture varies, from Nigeria, where legislative pushes for women’s representation in State and National Assembly are only emerging now, to Rwanda, where women make up over 60% of the National Assembly. Yet token appointments in male-dominated systems remain a danger. Numbers alone are not enough; women must hold real decision-making power. Equality demands substance, not symbolism.
The Gender Pay Gap and Unequal Work
Statistics reveal the stark reality. Women in South Africa earn 20.1% less than men hourly and 32.5% less monthly. Despite equal qualifications and experience, women are consistently undervalued, confined to roles society labels “feminine” — caregiving, administration, HR — critical jobs, but often low-paid and underappreciated.
Women make up only 47.39% of the formally employed workforce, and unemployment disproportionately affects them: 35.5% of women remain jobless, compared to 32.6% of men, with black women bearing the heaviest burden.
Meanwhile, women’s representation in leadership remains limited: just 42% of senior management positions and 39% of CEO roles are held by women. The so-called “glass ceiling” is not only intact; it remains thickened by cultural and systemic bias.
Digital Exclusion and Barriers to Skills
The Fourth Industrial Revolution offers opportunities, but digital exclusion has become a new frontier of inequality. Women are frequently denied access to training, resources, and opportunities to thrive in the digital economy. Worse still, technologies themselves often carry bias, having been developed predominantly by Western male-perspectives, without the context of African women’s realities. The result is technology that perpetuates bias instead of dismantling it. If digital inequality persists, women will be left behind in the very future we claim to be building.
Without equal access to skills, training, and finance, too many women remain unemployed or locked out of leadership, no matter their qualifications. Banks and financial institutions still treat women entrepreneurs with disproportionate skepticism, further limiting their ability to scale and contribute to the economy.
The Weight of Care and Work-Life Balance
The unpaid care burden remains another silent barrier. Women are still expected to carry the double load — professional work and household responsibilities — a weight that slows career progression and limits opportunities. Until care is recognised as real work and shared more equally, women will remain disadvantaged in both economic and professional spaces.
Preserving History, Honoring Women
History itself plays a role in shaping the future. Too often, women’s contributions are erased, edited or overlooked. Museums, books, and public records rarely tell the full story of women in the liberation struggle and beyond. Yet, preserving these stories is essential. Without women’s legacies being written back into history, society cannot claim to be fully inclusive. Preserving women’s legacies is not just about history; it’s about shaping the future. Encouragingly, the Ditsong National Museum has noted that it has begun addressing this gap by installing a Women in the Liberation Struggle exhibition.
History is not just about remembrance; it is a teacher. By confronting the untold stories of women, society gains the tools to build a more just and equal future.
The Way Forward: From Challenges to Action
Naming the challenges is not enough — action must follow. Efforts already underway include flexible work arrangements, leadership training, mentorship programmes, and legislative reforms. South Africa’s Employment Equity Act is an important framework, but implementation remains inconsistent. Alarmingly, it was only in 2025 that the judiciary adopted a sexual harassment policy — a reactive step, rather than a proactive one.
True progress requires bold and intentional action:
Challenge patriarchy daily, in homes, workplaces, and political spaces.
Ensure equal pay for equal work through gender pay audits.
Invest in women’s skills, particularly in technology and leadership.
Create accessible funding streams for women entrepreneurs.
Share unpaid care work fairly between men and women.
Preserve women’s histories to inspire future generations.
Beyond Statistics: Lived Realities
Statistics tell part of the story, but the deeper truth lies in lived experiences: the young woman who says, “I am qualified, but no one takes me seriously.” , the mother torn between a boardroom meeting and her child's school event, the women entrepreneurs who pour their hearts into businesses, but cannot access funding because banks don’t find them as credible. These stories reveal the true cost of exclusion — these are not numbers, they are people. And when women are excluded, entire societies lose.
Imagine a South Africa where salaries reflect value, not gender. Where leadership reflects the population, not patriarchy. Where technology is equally accessible to all girls and boys in rural and urban centres, and where care work is shared and recognised. Where history fully honours women, and not hides them. That vision is possible, but it requires collective commitment, from government, business, civil society, and individuals alike.
Conclusion: The Struggle and the Victory
The struggle for women’s liberation is not an annual commemoration only given in August. It is a daily act of courage, persistence, and solidarity. Nearly seventy years after the 1956 march, the rock still stands, cracked, but not unshaken. Within those cracks, however, are the seeds of resilience, innovation, and transformation.
The struggle continues. But so does the victory.
Women are not asking for charity; they are demanding equity, justice, and recognition. The liberation of women is not women’s work alone, it is humanity’s unfinished business. To this, we must move beyond slogans and into action, creating workplaces, societies, and futures where women are not just present, but powerful to meaningful change.
This article is derived from a presentation on Women In The Workplace, by Bongiwe Tutu, fraymedia Foundation's Operations Manager, during the Ditsong Museums of South Africa Women's Month Public Lecture event titled 'The Ongoing Struggle of Women', held on 21 August 2025, Johannesburg.
Comments