Women continue marching in an unfinished struggle
Among young people aged 15—34 years, the youth unemployment rate sits at 46.1%, reflecting a deepening crisis of opportunity, as reflected in Stats SA's Quarterly Labour Force Survey Q1 2025. At the same time, gender-based violence remains one of SA'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 SA among the countries with the highest femicide rates globally (SA Police Crime Stats, quarter four 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, SA 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 SA where women are safe, valued, empowered and central to our country's renewal.
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The Citizen
a day ago
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TimesLIVE
a day ago
- TimesLIVE
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The South African
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- The South African
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