By Moyiga Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 12 2005 (IPS)

For Tukisang Senne, programme director at the Planned Parenthood Association of South Africa (PPASA), the battle to put men and women on an equal footing has to be waged on various fronts.

“We are fighting the value systems which are not only held by traditionalists, but also by the Church,” he told IPS. (PPASA is a Johannesburg-based non-governmental organisation.)

This involves tackling certain customs which are out of step with the modern world.

“For example, when a man has passed on, the inheritance goes to a male relative and not to the deceased’s wife. And when a woman loses her husband, she must stay in mourning for a period of 12 months while wearing black cloth. But a man doesn’t have to go through all this period of mourning,” notes Senne.

“In Africa, a girl child is treated as an associate member of the family.”

Communities which consider themselves Christian may also struggle with the Biblical precept that men are the heads of their families.

The efforts of the PPASA and other groups involved in the fight for gender equality are in the spotlight this week with the release of the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) annual report Wednesday.

”The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals”, focuses on the central role that gender equality plays in development – noting that efforts to dismantle discrimination offer a substantial “equality dividend”.

“Investments in gender equality and reproductive health offer multiple rewards that can accelerate social and economic progress, with lasting impact on future generations,” says the report.

Failure to strive for equality comes at a high price. “The costs of gender discrimination are highest for low-income countries, and within countries, for the poor,” according to UNFPA.

Nations that are languishing in the fight against discrimination are also at risk of failing to reach the third Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which is to promote gender equality.

Eight MDGs were agreed on by world leaders at the U.N. Millennium Summit in 2000. The deadline for the goals, which also include halving extreme hunger and poverty, is 2015.

Since the demise of apartheid in 1994, various policies have been adopted to advance women in South Africa. The ruling African National Congress has decreed, for example, that 30 percent of candidates on its national party lists should be women.

“As a result, the representation of women increased from below three percent to 27 percent in one election in 1994,” notes the Global Database of Quotas for Women, an initiative managed by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, based in Stockholm, and by Stockholm University.

At present, just under 33 percent of parliamentarians are women. Across the African continent, only Rwanda fares better – with 49 percent of legislative seats occupied by women.

In addition, 43 percent of South Africa’s cabinet ministers are women, up from 30 percent in 1999, the year of the country’s second democratic election. They include Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma.

But as the UNFPA report notes, “deeply entrenched ideas about gender relations” persist globally – and South Africa is no exception.

The latest crime statistics issued by police provide some illustration of this. While cases of domestic violence dropped somewhat from 260,082 in 2003/2004 to 249,369 in 2004/2005, rape cases increased from 52,733 in 2003/2004 to 55,114 in 2004/2005.

In addition, the spread of AIDS – linked to gender inequality – continues unabated. South Africa has 6.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS, a million more than in 2003 – making it the country with the highest number of HIV-positive citizens in the world.

EngenderHealth, an international NGO, targets men between the ages of 18 and 35 in a bid to improve gender relations in South Africa. The men receive training for about a week, and then set up discussion groups.

“Once trained, these men meet once a week to discuss, for example, rape – which affects their community,” Nhlanhla Mabizela, a spokesman for EngenderHealth, told IPS.

“At first they become very defensive. But later they become receptive once they begin to understand the issues of masculinity.”

The growing network of discussion forums (125 at last count) has created what Mabizela terms “a social movement of thought”.

“The network creates a space for men to bring the issues to the fore. It also introduces the concept of masculinity that does not entail violence, chauvinism and aggression,” he says. “Men must work with other men.”

The importance of involving men in the drive towards gender equality is underscored in the UNFPA report, as well as the fact that many men are ready to take up this challenge.

Research has shown, for instance, that men around the world have an interest in their partners’ reproductive health. “But,” adds the report, “negative feedback from other men, family members and employers, and resistance by health providers, may prevent men from putting their interest into practice.”

According to Senna, training on gender issues has even been extended to the military in South Africa. Last year hundreds of soldiers were coached to become gender trainers in various army bases across the country.

“They take the training and instil it in their soldiers,” notes Senna. “You may be a soldier and you may be aggressive in the line of your duty, but you need to be a human being at home, in your social environment. At home your family needs your emotion, not the aggression that you display when you defend the country.”

As the UNFPA report indicates, the social conditioning that can result in negative attitudes towards women takes place from the earliest years of a man’s life: “The social pressures to perform and codes of honour that men and boys grow up with can encourage them to compete, resort to violence or take sexual risks to demonstrate their ‘manliness’.”

Equally, initiatives that reach out to boys and young men can offer their own “equality dividend”.

The message to get across, says Senne, is that “It’s okay to be sensitive, but this does not mean that you are less of a man. You are a human being first – then a man.”

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