CELEBRATING WOMEN PATHFINDERS AND GAME CHANGERS
WHEN Sunday World Heroic Women was launched a few years ago it was envisaged as a platform to honour and recognise women pioneers who are making a difference in their respective fields.
It was a project undertaken to first, celebrate the achievements, efforts and talents of women in a diverse range of fields.
It was also set to inspire the next generation of women leaders and pathfinders, to show and remind them that being a woman is not a handicap and that their gender should not stand and cannot stand in the way of them reaching their goals.
The call for nominations and submissions from our readers has revealed amazing insight into the progressive work done by women in different fields, from science, business, arts, culture, medicine, education and sport.
It reveals the progressive efforts of women whose contributions to their respective fields are helping to shape our country. It is an affirmation that while challenges remain in terms of leveling the gender playing fields globally and here at home, this doesn’t mean women are just standing by and doing nothing.
In line with the Sesotho idiom that speaks of women being the ones holding the sharp end of the blade, indeed women are stamping their authority in various fields.
This is despite still being at the receiving end of many ills in our society, from gender-based violence, sexual violence and inequality in the workplace, business, governance and other fields in the broader society.
The United Nations Women’s Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2023, paints a disturbing picture of the lack of progress regarding gender equality.
The report notes that halfway to the end point of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world is still failing to achieve gender equality, making it an increasingly distant goal. It further warns that if current trends continue, more than 340 million women and girls will still live in extreme poverty by 2030, and close to one in four will experience moderate or severe food insecurity.
The UN further highlights that the gender gap in power and leadership positions remains entrenched, and, at the current rate of progress, the next generation of women will still spend on average 2.3 more hours per day on unpaid care and domestic work than men.
Even more disturbing, the report reveals that no country, including ours, is within reach of eradicating intimate partner violence, and women’s share of workplace management positions will remain below parity even by 2050. While these grim realities remain a feature of our daily lives, the pages of Sunday World Heroic Women highlight and honour the glittering jewels who are at the forefront of reversing the status quo.
Despite these disturbing projections, it is our firm belief that the women whose stories are aptly told in the pages of this publication will touch, move, inspire and motivate a generation that is set to reverse the challenges women continue to face.
In a month where our country celebrates and commemorates the women of our land, we believe the Sunday World Heroic Women publication is our contribution to upholding the rights of women, affirming their role as equal partners in building our society and encouraging them to never waver despite the current challenges. You strike a woman, you strike a rock. (‘Wathint’ Abafazi, Wathint’ Imbokodo’)
Lucas Ledwaba
ABOUT HEROIC WOMEN
South Africa’s landscape, rural and urban, is largely dependent on what our women do and can deliver daily as it traverses challenges, wins, losses, and in some cases, hopelessness.
With the latter, our women have not once, but frequently shown that they are the leaders and would not lead our beautiful country into a bottomless pit, one we may find hard to get out of.
South Africa’s women are resilient, hard-working, overachievers and community builders whose work is less heard of. Hence, we as Sunday World, are yet again producing this volume of work.
While South Africa remains a beacon of hope when it comes to its constitutional democracy, there are still glaring challenges that need to be addressed when it comes to how we treat our children, our daughters, and our women.
In this supplement, some of these are being addressed by a myriad of women who are in business, academia, science, environment, sport, tourism and community work that should indicate to us that we need not live in this hopelessness – when we have strong characters who are carrying their homes and their communities, and are forever assuring us that the future of this nation rests on their shoulders.
Earlier this month, in Pofadder, Northern Cape, President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “Today we stand on the shoulders of giants. The wise, caring, loving, selfless women who raised us, who nurtured us, and who led our country to freedom… Women in South Africa enjoy rights and freedoms under our Constitution. They benefit from progressive legislation.”
Ramaphosa’s words shouldn’t ring hollow, for we, as a nation, are blessed to have women of the kind of stature featured in these pages. These are women who have been selfless and have gone far beyond the call of duty, seeking a better life not only for themselves but also for those in their surroundings. That search continues – and these women continue to implore us that there is more work ahead.
South Africa, not only in the continent, continues to raise its hand when it comes to women’s leadership across several disciplines, a development that should be embraced, as we seek to see more of our young women doing even better.
While we recognise this August month, pun intended, as one dedicated to women, we should also be mindful that the work they do is not only limited to this month but also work that’s around the clock, of changing and shaping lives, and is done 365 days each year.
We are proud of all the women featured in these pages, and we are proud of all the nominations we have received, more than 800 of them.
These are hard-working women, and we should doff our hats to them, and do so in appreciation of their natural call of duty.
We, as a nation of Mittah Seperepere and Dulcie September, should continue encouraging women’s emancipation.
Project Editor
