Target of 50 percent female representation has failed September 14, 2009 - Cape Times - Edition 1 - page 5
CARIEN DU PLESSIS Political Bureau COSATU has been struggling to get more women into leadership positions and has admitted failing to implement its own decision that half its leaders should be women. The labour federation, which earlier this month dropped an equality court case against Western Cape Premier Helen Zille over her appointment of an all-male cabinet after her commitment to gender equality became "apparent", is due to discuss the issue at its 10th conference which starts in Midrand next week. A draft discussion paper notes that, although Cosatu had decided on 50 percent representation of women, "few women (participated) in organisational activities". The labour federation said it had been unable to implement its own resolution because its affiliates had not yet provided it with a gender breakdown of their membership. It said it would most probably resort to using statistics from Statistics South Africa's labour force survey. Cosatu said women found it difficult to rise in its ranks because "male comrades do not always give female comrades opportunities to grow in key strategic positions", while women themselves pulled each other down. Young and highly educated women also tended to think unions were for the less educated or for men, according to the document. It also said patriarchy existed in society and in the workplace. Trade unions also had difficulty electing women as shop stewards for reasons "ranging from household responsibilities to lack of confidence". It suggested that sexual harassment within unions be addressed and childcare facilities be provided at meetings in order to address this situation. "In general terms, women remain under-represented in all levels in Cosatu," the labour federation said. Where women did occupy positions, these were mostly those of deputies or treasurers. This is reflected in Cosatu's national leadership, where out of the four top officials, only the treasurer, Alinah Rantsolase, is a woman. Second vice-president, Violet Seboni, the only other woman in the top leadership, died in a car accident in April. Cosatu acknowledged that certain provinces, such as the Free State, reflected 50 percent gender representation. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
