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 Gender equality and empowering women - Goal 3
Swaziland is fairly advanced in making conscious decisions towards ensuring gender equality and women empowerment in the recent years. Evidence to this improvement has been demonstrated through the provision of an equality clause in the Constitution that was adopted in 2005. The Progress Report on the MDG for Swaziland reports that Goal 3 that relates to the promotion of Gender Equality and women empowerment revealed that there are signs that positive progress is being registered to the extent that trends of MDG indicators reflect an upward movement towards gender equality. In the education system, the boys’ participation outweighs that of the girls but the difference is marginal, with an average female participation rate of 49.2 percent.
Similarly, a recent study has revealed that for formal general education and training, gender inequalities in enrolment are quite small until about age 16. Thereafter, more boys remain in the school system longer than girls . For the age group 17-20, enrolment of boys considerably exceeds that of girls. In contrast, women constitute 90 percent of enrolment in Non-formal Universal Primary Education (NUPE) programmes.
The same study also reports that gender parity has been attained in overall access. The low female participation that persisted through the first decade had closed in the late 1990s but resurfaced in the early 2000 but closed again in 2007. However, women are substantially under-represented in the faculties of science, agriculture, commerce, and in post graduate studies. However, they are over-represented in humanities and in Education. Their dominance in fields with low employment opportunities risks perpetuating gender related inequities in earnings outlined
In the area of public participation, while female representation in parliament and in Cabinet is still minimal, trends show that there is an upward mobility. In the Parliament that run over the 2003-2008 period, 20 percent were females, an improvement from 8 percent representation in previous Parliament (1998-203). In Cabinet 4 out of the 18 members (including the office of Deputy Minister), an improvement from previous governments. More so, in 2006, Swaziland saw a historic representation where the offices of the Deputy Prime Minister and the single post of deputy-Minister became occupied by females. In the Swaziland civil service, 58 percent of professional, technical, administrative and managerial positions are occupied by women. The situation is in contrast in the private sector where only 30.2 percent of similar positions are held by women.
In Swaziland only 31 percent of the population is employed and this represents 39.6 percent males and 23.5 percent females. Most women are found in the informal sector of employment, mainly in micro enterprises and in the agricultural and food production sector where about 70-80 percent of women carry out the work. The participation of women in the non-agricultural wage employment sector remains poor. In 2001, only 25.2 percent of women were in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector and the figure declines slightly to 23.5% in 2005 due, in part, to the unfavourable economic climate that had resulted in job losses for both men and women.
Until the Constitution is fully implemented, gender inequality will continue to be a challenge more so because the country is a patriarchal society, known for its strong traditions, values and norms that have continued to guide the nation’s way of life. Gender-related issues happen to be entrenched in the socio-cultural milieu of the way of life of the Swazi people manifested in the people’s perceptions, beliefs and practices. In the Swazi patriarchal systems, male dominance and other socio-cultural factors interplay to influence the interactions between women and men resulting in inequalities. Other factors that exacerbate inequality include unsupportive legislation; limited opportunity for women in national development; poor access by women to the means of production, education and health; and gender discrimination of different forms leading to increased vulnerability to abuse and disease.
The root of gender inequality might stem from extrinsic factors (socio economic and cultural) but some of the reinforcing factors are intrinsic in females. A sociological perspective proposes that human behaviour is shaped by socio-cultural systems and that actors tend to act in terms of their self concept. Thus, if females in the Swazi society are defined as subordinate, inferior, minors and powerless, they are likely to see themselves and those in their group in that light and act accordingly. Little has changed the attitudes in spite of continued advocacy, information, communication and education, increased opportunity for academic advancement and employment. It can be inferred that the notion of acceptance of violation of their human rights, particularly right to respect, dignity and non discrimination has been entrenched even among women themselves. This is clear indication that more need to be done to turn around the negative self concept women hold about themselves as individuals and as a group in order to ensure that true empowerment takes effect.
A number of key national and sectoral policies and strategies recognize the need to address gender inequalities in the country. These include the National Constitution; NDS; PRSAP; National Population Policy, HIV and AIDS policy; National Health Policy; and the National Strategic Framework on HIV and AIDS. With the support of the UN system, the country has developed a Gender Policy which was submitted for Cabinet approval this year (2009). It is yet to be approved.
Swaziland is signatory to a number of international conventions and agreements that have a bearing on gender equality and equity. These instruments were either ratified and/or signed by the Government as a sign of commitment to respect, protect and implement socio cultural and economic rights. It is, therefore, expected that government takes legislative and regulatory measures to fulfil these obligations and ensure domestication of the international instruments. The Constitution, which is an overarching commitment by government, guarantees equal rights between men and women that would enable all people to play a dynamic role in the development of the country.
Strategies for the implementation of the policies and programmes highlighted above include institutional capacity strengthening, legal and policy reforms and advocacy, and community mobilization programmes. The UN, the EU and other partners have supported the interventions in this area. Although the draft Gender Policy has not been approved by Government, a number of policy and legal reforms have taken place in the last decade. The first state report on CEDAW was prepared and submitted in 2008. Similarly, several pieces of legislation have been reviewed and await being enacted into law by Parliament. These include the Marriage Act, the Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Bill, and the Land Policy and the Deeds and Registry Act. Gender equality issues have also been mainstreamed in the PRSAP, the Population Policy, the Children’s Policy, the National Strategic Framework on HIV and AIDS, and the UNDAF.
In terms of institutional capacity strengthening, the Government has established the Gender Coordination Unit which has been recently (2009) moved from the Ministry of Home Affairs to the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office. Moreover, the Sexual Offences Unit within the Police has been decentralized to ensure access to high quality crime prevention and management services by more citizens. In addition, some programme managers in the public sector and Civil Society Organizations have been trained on a number of gender aspects. Advocacy has also been employed to target policy makers, opinion leaders and the general populace. To strengthen the advocacy efforts, the Women Parliamentarian Network and a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Gender has been established. However, most programmes in Swaziland are not adequately informed by data and very little research has been undertaken to inform the gender programme in Swaziland.
Although the country is generally hard hit by poverty, women are worse off due to their low participation in employment.. Men’s employment rate is higher at 59.2 percent than that of women at 45.2 percent. A significant proportion of women are employed in the informal sector, mainly in micro-enterprises and in agricultural and food production. (Government of Swaziland, labour force survey, 2007/8). Further to this, the prevalence of poverty is higher (63 percent among female-headed households compared to male headed households at 52 percent (SHIES, 2001).
Inequality in Access to Education
Over the years, Swaziland has achieved improving primary enrolments rates with insignificant gender differentials. For example, primary school female enrolment rate increased between 2004 and 2007 from 79 percent to 85 percent Of concern is the low progression rate from primary to secondary where only 47.4 percent continue with school and of these, 51.5 percent progress to tertiary education (Swaziland Government, 2007). Although female enrolments are increasing in tertiary education, they (women) tend to have higher enrolments in lower return tertiary programmes of teaching and nursing than in the mainstream high return fields of science, business and Law. The gender pattern in the selection of fields of study is important because tertiary studies have a strong influence in future lives, jobs and the roles available to them in society. Presently, about 15 percent of females never attain any level of education and of those that enrol in primary school, more than half of them never progress to secondary school.
Women are increasingly taking responsibility for decision making at the household level as 43.2 percent of the total households in Swaziland are headed by women and. 63 percent of female-headed households are poor and lack the means of production compared to 52 percent of those headed by males. Women’s discrimination in property ownership is also an expression of the high inequality that disadvantage women in Swaziland. Women continue to be minors before the law and in practice. This status is reinforced by marriage under both customary and common law. Access and control of property is determined by the type of marriage and as such access to, and control of land is vested in males. Property rights are also skewed towards men and dependant on the type of marriage. Whilst the Constitution guarantees equality before the law, there is delay in effecting its dictates because the structures for implementing the Constitution have not yet been put in place.
Access to Swazi Nation Land (SNL) by women continues to be a challenge. Although land can be accessed free of charge through the traditional kukhonta system from the chief of the area, women cannot independently do so without a male relative. However, anecdotal evidence show that there is an emerging practice where some chiefs relax the traditional rules and allocate land to women without a male figurehead if demands of prevailing situations show that a male figure is not available (e.g. in cases where all males have died and a female remains to be head of household). This is an encouraging development, which is in line with the Constitution that provides in Section 211(2) that, ‘Save as may be required by the exigencies of any particular situation, a citizen of Swaziland, without regard to gender, shall have equal access to land for normal domestic purposes.’
Access to Title Deed Land (TDL) is also a challenge to women in Swaziland particularly if they do not have the resources required and have to approach a bank to secure credit. Even where a woman is ultimately able to secure the husband’s consent and the land is purchased, if she is married in community of property, her ownership and control over the property is virtually removed as the land can only be registered under her husband’s name.
Gender-based violence is a major problem affecting mainly women and children. Approximately 1 in 4 females in Swaziland experiences physical violence as a child and among youth aged 18-24 years, about 9 percent experience coerced intercourse before they turn 18 years (UNICEF, 2007). In the lifetime of a women, about a third experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime. In Swaziland, hardly a day passes without the media reporting gross act of gender based violence perpetrated against women and girls. Police reports show that domestic violence crimes reports increased from 357 to 513 between 2006 and 2007. Of the total criminal offences, 29 percent were cases of sexual offences against women. Other forms of domestic and GBV cases reported to the police include physical assault sometimes leading to death, murder, emotional and psychological abuse, verbal abuse and various forms of battery (Government of Swaziland, 2007). Some cultural practices such as wife inheritance, forced marriages, early marriage and intergenerational sex compound the increasing incidence of GBV and, in particular, sexual abuse of the girl child and young women. Perpetrators of GBV are mostly men and deterrent measures put in place to curb this problem seem not to be effective. Evidence show that there is a link between GBV and vulnerability to HIV infection particularly among young girls as 9.2 percent of youths reported forced sex at the first sexual encounter (Youth BCC Baseline survey report, 2008).
Although the situation of representation of women in positions and structures of decision making is improving, the target to reach 50 percent remains a major challenge. There is low representation of women in Parliament. Women representation in Parliament increased from 8 percent to about 20 percent between 1998 and 2008. In the public and civil society sectors, senior positions (Principal and Under Secretaries, Directors and Chief Executive Officers) are dominated by men as only 23 percent and 27 percent of these senior positions, respectively, are held by women (Government of Swaziland, 2008). Traditional leadership continues to be the domain of men and women can only act in cases where the incumbent is young or has not yet been identified.
It has been noted that unsafe sexual practices combined with behavioural and socio-cultural and economic factors are exacerbating women and girls’ vulnerability and, as such, are fuelling the HIV and AIDS problem. HIV and AIDS has a female face in Swaziland (see Section 2.6 above). HIV prevalence among the younger women and girls is much higher that the men and boys of their age groups. Girls’ vulnerability to HIV infection is also related to dropping out of school as evidence show that sexual debut among in-school youth is older than those out-of school as it was found to be 19 years and 16.3 years, respectively (Swaziland Behavioural Survey, 2002). It follows that keeping girls in school longer might delay the chance of contracting HIV through sexual intercourse at an early age and simultaneously providing the girls an opportunity to mature and to make more informed decisions about their lives.
Both customary and general law supports discrimination against women in Swaziland. For instance, the Deeds Registry Act restricts the registration of TDL by women married in community of property. The Swazi law and custom propounds that the girl child cannot inherit property even if it is from their parents. Furthermore, the country has very weak child maintenance laws that allow men to evade their responsibilities leaving the women to bring up the children single-handedly. Other pieces of legislation that are not supportive to gender equality include the Domestic Violence and Sexual Offenses Act, Deeds Registry act, the Administration of Estates Act, and the Land Policy.
Taking into account the current situation, including the outstanding challenges, the following offer opportunities for cooperation in the area of Gender Equality.
1. Address the High Gender Inequality: Collaboration with the Government in addressing the existing high inequality that disadvantages women in national life would be in the interest of national development. Particular areas where cooperation could make a difference in this regard include the minimisation of the gender gap in the labour market, particularly for positions of influence and authority; and women’s discrimination in property ownership, particularly land. Complementary to this should be support to the strengthening of legislation that enhances gender equality in Swaziland. The UN System is better placed to champion the adoption in Swaziland of the Human Rights Approach to addressing the gender inequities.
2. Reducing Women’s Disproportionate Exposure to HIV and AIDS: There are opportunities to support Government efforts to reduce the disproportionate exposure to the HIV and AIDS pandemic by women through civic education and support towards the strengthening of law enforcement.
3. Bridging the Gap between Knowledge, Policy and Practice: Support is required in assisting the Government to bridge the gap between knowledge, policy and practice through the facilitation of a sound legal and policy framework. In this respect, innovative approaches could be explored to assist the Government adhere quickly to the provisions of the Constitution by establishing the remaining institutional structures and regulatory provisions in a timely way. Complementary to this is the need to support Government towards the domestication of international human rights instruments which the country is signatory to.
4. Support to the Review of the Gender Policy: Support to Government is required in moving more decisively towards the approval of the Gender Policy. Where it is established that there are areas where further consultation is required, actions should be taken to ensure that such hurdles are not allowed to unduly obstruct the smooth passage of the Gender Policy towards its approval. Support could be provided in terms of resources to facilitate such actions in order to clear the way Policy approval.
5. Culture-sensitive and Human Rights Approaches: Firstly, there is need for a diverse culturally-sensitive response that will tackle the deep-rooted socio-cultural belief and attitudes that perpetuate gender inequality. The strategies should include systematic gender socialization for both boys and girls through the educational system. Education on human rights targeting the women, men, traditional authorities, the Legislature and the Judiciary is desirable.
6. Reduce gender-based violence against women and girls: Support is needed at three fronts:
(a) Improved service delivery for victims and perpetrators
(b) Improve monitoring and reporting on GBV
(c) Community mobilization to ensure communities take charge in prevention of GBV
Marope, Mmantsetsa, et al., Swaziland: Education, Training and Skills Development for Shared Growth and Competitiveness, A joint Study by the Government of Swaziland and World Bank Technical Team, Mbabane, May, 2009
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