SCREENSAVER OR SUPERHERO?

In South Africa, we celebrate National Women’s Day on 9 August and the entire month of August is referred to as Women’s Month.  The idea of devoting an entire day to the upliftment of women by declaring it a national public holiday, is indeed a very noble one.  Add to that the notion of continuing this devotion throughout an entire month and it sounds truly noble, right?  

Sadly, it only SOUNDS noble, because for it to actually BE noble, there has to be truthful ACTION and the available evidence, currently, suggests the absence thereof.  Like an attractive SCREENSAVER, it displays a picture of something desirable, but it is completely void of any ACTIONable plan to achieve that desire.  To add further insult to injury, a SCREENSAVER can be dismissed with a simple swipe ACTION.

As female Chief Executive Officer of a technology company, I consider this holiday to be unnecessary, unproductive and redundant.  As a woman, I feel somewhat insulted and patronized to be celebrated in a country “boasting” one of the highest crime rates in the world and where much is SPOKEN about gender-based violence, but zero real ACTION is forthcoming!  In my own life I have experienced oppression of women in my culture, traditions, communities and even multiple churches.  Truth be told, regardless of Women’s Day, this oppression continues to prevail, not just for 11 months of the year, but even in August and especially on 9 August.  

For as long as prominent, powerful & political men subscribe to religions, mindsets, cultures and traditions where women are oppressed, their ostentatious speeches at Women’s Day events where they, essentially, publicly propagate the very same thing which they oppose in private, NOTHING will change.  Their words are frivolous vapour ware, their images merely impressive SCREENSAVERS and their message, the very definition of hypocrisy.

Effective upliftment of women require the ACTION of eliminating oppression of women.  Men and women are very different, but they ARE equal.  There is NO contest.  There is NO best gender.  It really is refreshingly simple.  There is NO place for hate and prejudice in a healthy society, ergo, misogyny is an indictment.  It has been my experience that in those environments where misogyny is condemned, feminism becomes redundant.  In my marriage, as wife to my husband, I am his equal.  In the market place, as visionary leader of a company, I am equal to the men and women I lead.  In my church, as an active member of the priesthood of all believers, I am equal to my fellow members (men and women).

This year, on 9 August (which is three weeks from today), I will choose to exercise my right as a woman to swipe away the SCREENSAVERS and I will celebrate the real SUPERHEROES (starting with my husband and the male dominees of my beloved church) who, through ACTION, consider me to be their equal every day of every year, including 9 August.  May 9 August 2023 set in motion a transformation to a new season where the SCREENSAVERS will ditch their hollow talk, commit to substantial ACTION and follow the lead of the SUPERHEROES.