Business Day National Women’s Day

MARCHING FORWARD IN AN UNFINISHED STRUGGLE

This year’s National Women’s Day arrives as South Africa grapples with mounting economic hardship and persistent inequality. The statistics are sobering: 35.5 per cent of women are unemployed, compared to 30.7 per cent of men, and 39.8 per cent of black African women are without work – the most affected demographic in the country. Among young people aged 15–34, the youth unemployment rate sits at 46.1 per cent, re­flecting a deepening crisis of opportunity, as reflected in Statistic South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey Q1 2025. At the same time, gender-based violence remains one of South Africa’s most devastating and under-addressed issues.

In the year ending March 2024, 5 578 women and 1 656 children were murdered – figures that place South Africa among the countries with the highest femicide rates globally (SAPolice Crime Stats, Q4 2023/24). Despite national outcry and policy responses, violence against women and children continues unabated, with many survivors left without meaningful support or justice.

Yet in the face of all this, South African women continue to lead, build and rise. In this issue, we celebrate women who are tackling some of our nation’s most urgent challenges – climate resilience, food insecurity, economic inequality – with courage and innovation. These women are not simply navigating broken systems; they are transforming them.

We revisit the legacy of the 1956 Women’s March, not as a symbolic anniversary, but as a living movement. The demands for equality, dignity and inclusion are as urgent now as they were then.

Let this Women’s Month be more than a commemoration. Let it be a recommitment to a South Africa where women are safe, valued, empowered and central to our country’s renewal.

Contact

Sales Project Manager

Jackie Bezuidenhout

Cell: 078 172 7776 / 072 430 9392

Email: JacquelineB@picasso.co.za