Women: Wise, Optimistic, Motivating, Empowering & Nurturing

long demonstrated, this is often a forgotten aspect of our narrative.

This unfortunate omission underscores the importance of reclaiming and preserving these stories, weaving them into the broader narrative of societal progress. As we reflect on their fight and the impact of their war cry, “wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo, uza kufa” which translates to “when you strike the women, you strike a rock, you will be crushed you will die”, we are given pause to reflect on the progress made in the fight for equality since then. We now live in a democratic society where many of our aspirations have been realised. Yet, there is much we have not managed to achieve. To say that South Africa has achieved equality would be a fallacy. A grim reality is that in many aspects we have failed women.

Pay parity, underrepresentation in industries, unequal access to opportunities, disturbing levels of violence, sexism and misogyny persist unabated. These issues cast a long shadow over our aspirations as a nation. This book aims to shed light on these issues while honouring the progress made and highlighting the road ahead.