Legal news and commentary from the offices of Simon Dippenaar
This Women’s Month, SD Law congratulates women in sport This month, South Africa observes Women’s Month. We say “observe” rather than “celebrate” because women still experience physical and emotional abuse and even death at the hands of men every day at shamefully high rates in our country. Sex work is still criminalised and sex workers […]
Men need to be allowed to be vulnerable to end gender-based violence The 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children has ended. But the intentions of the campaign must continue. We cannot tolerate the abuse or death of more women and girls. We’ve written recently about the root causes of gender […]
How do we change the root causes of inequality? Regular readers of our blog know we like to keep up with legal news around the world. It’s great to see where South Africa is leading the way, and where we can learn from other countries. Recently, we spotted an initiative from Scotland. The 2022-23 Programme […]
Why are we still fighting high rates of femicide? As we stagger towards the end of the year, exhausted but at least relieved that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us and life has returned to some semblance of normality (Eskom’s woes notwithstanding), it’s time once again to turn our attention to the […]
COVID-19 has set back gender equality by 25 years South Africa celebrates national Women’s Day on 9th August every year, not to be confused with International Women’s Day on 8th March. It’s interesting to note that the date of 8th March was chosen because it marks the day when women in Soviet Russia began protesting […]
What has COVID-19 shown us about women and leadership? Women’s Day in South Africa commemorates, as everyone knows, the historic march on the Union Buildings in 1956 by 20,000 women in protest against the discriminatory pass laws of the day. The march, which was entirely peaceful and included half an hour of standing in complete […]
Melinda Gates speaks out about the need for leaders to take into account the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on women, as we face the long, slow task of recovery. Reprinted from the Guardian, by Melinda Gates – 2020-07-15 ‘We get recovery if we get equality’ philanthropist argues in new paper urging policymakers to address unpaid […]
Women are still not paid equally for equal work Last year during Women’s Month the world was focused on the Harvey Weinstein case and the #metoo campaign, which emerged in the wake of a parade of women coming forward with harrowing tales of sexual abuse and sexual harassment at the hands of Weinstein and many […]
Women’s Rights – August is Women’s Day in South Africa. Although the celebrations centre around the 9th, Women’s Day, in fact the whole month is given over to a reminder and celebration of the role women play in advancing human rights and helping to create a fairer society.
