Nontobeko Mdhluli [Founder & Director: Zanati Link Consulting] |
ECONOMIC CRISIS,WOMEN AND UNEMPLOYMENT..
Women all over the world are suffering increased physical abuse and financial difficulty as the global financial storm takes its toll across the globe. Times of severe financial crisis have many far-reaching and devastating effects, many of them unpredictable beyond the short term.
As economists, politicians and executives scramble to assess the damage and perform crucial evaluations of various sectors and markets, an important social segment -- women -- remains unremembered, though not unaffected. Women have been hard-hit by the crisis on many fronts. Women face domestic violence as much as five times in recent days. Many more will likely suffer in silence and never report their troubles. One report released, emphasised that men in South Africa often take out their frustration at their own unemployment or economic difficulty by battering their wives and female relatives. One out of three women in South Africa suffers from domestic violence. Violence against women and children is not just an offense, it’s a human rights violation. Domestic violence is not a private problem. … The government needs to provide support, such as accommodation, job placement, psychological support and free health care, for female victims of domestic violence. We must achieve this goal.
Along with the increase in complaints regarding domestic violence have come complaints about being laid-off or fired from work. In South Africa where, as in many places in the world, employment equality in terms of salary has not been attained, men are given priority in employment, and this is equally true for times of crisis. Having said this though, we have certainly come a long way when it comes to their skilled and educated counterparts. To a large extent though, sexism on the part of corporate workplace management increases during times of crisis and that women are the first to go when layoffs come around, the many women who work in small and medium-sized enterprises |
[SMEs] will be left jobless. The crisis women are facing parallel to the economic turmoil receives little attention. The problem of the low publicity given to this problem in our country is augmented by the lack of any statistical studies or research performed outside of women’s organizations, which have limited financial resources.
However, there is a silver lining for women in the global economic slowdown, which have spilled over to the country. For one, the number of women entrepreneurs has grown rapidly. I heard that in Turkey now, seven out of 10 businesses that are being set up in that country are by women. This is really a proof to the enterprising spirit of Filipino women. We need more entrepreneurs to prop up our economy in South Africa because in other countries women are leading the way! One Filipino Senator has been quoted as saying "Until now, at the age of 85, my mother still insists on running a small store in her house. She instilled in me not just values such as hard work and perseverance [sipag at tiyaga], but also being entrepreneurial," he said.
But I also discovered statistics which I think are very interesting about the Phillipines..
* Majority or 55% of women entrepreneurs are 30 to 39 years old;
* majority of 52% are single;
* majority or 42% belong to the "broad middle" class; and
* majority or 64% were employed prior to starting their own business.
The rising unemployment and increasing number of layoffs should be forcing people to put up their own business in our country too ,I was also disturbed by the statistic on marital status being a factor to women starting their own businesses, does it mean men are not supportive enough? Many should consider using their retrenchment packages to fund their start-ups. Women can support themselves and their children by contributing to the family's income, so women have such an invaluable contribution to make in the economy, for having their own business would mean not needing to be away from their family anymore. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) need as much support as the big companies. These SMEs, which are started by entrepreneurs, can contribute significantly in pulling the country out of an economic slowdown.
As South Africans, what impact does this global phenomenon have on us and specifically as South African Women? Lack of proper skills training is one of the main causes of unemployment in South Africa. But few can afford to go on some kind of skills development programme and many wind up accepting jobs far from fuelling their true potential, just to put bread on the table.
One group that millions of desperate citizens look to for possible relief is the business community. The newly empowered black business elite can now be expected to move beyond the role of passive equity partner to play a special role in actively advancing social justice and job creation, If South Africans are ultimately all in the same boat, which values and practices need to be operationalised if our new nation is to survive and thrive? Business is said to be doing a fair job when it comes to skills acquisition, but the absence of appropriate skills means that there are at least a million job vacancies in the economy. What this means is, women should rise up, educate themselves, equip themselves with skills and get enterprising!
Nontobeko Mdhluli-Founder& Director: Zanati Link Consulting
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