student voices: On gender equality and inclusivity 30

GENDER TRANSFORMATION SYMPOSIUM REPORT

• What should an implementation plan on women’s issues include? and how should implementation of the monitoring of this plan be enacted to hold those who are currently unaccountable accountable, including both state and non-state actors?

Meanwhile, the Presidential review Committee on women’s emancipation and Gender equality has brought together a 26-strong multi-disciplinary team to review the status of women’s rights and emancipation and gender equality in south africa over the past 25 years and to develop plans to improve the quality of women’s lives in south africa. The Committee is considering a number of fundamental issues such as gender power relations; and the meaning of intersectionality in addressing oppression. The latter is a crucial concern in the kinds of narratives of rape that can be produced in south africa, which may adopt a prejudicial focus on black men as perpetrators rather than acknowledging that gender-based violence is prevalent behind closed doors in both black and white households, and in both poor and rich communities, as has become increasingly evident. The Committee is further considering how agents for change may locate themselves within the public discourse, forging a new definition of what it means to be an african feminist.

On a practical level, the Committee is seeking to identify gaps in government documents and reports and analyses the implementation and impact of key policies, legislation and strategies on women’s emancipation and gender equality. it is also reviewing and analyzing a number of select interventions in this area. in its analysis of the state of women’s emancipation nationally, the Committee is further reviewing the National Gender Machinery and how this may be strengthened; and is producing recommendations for short- (2019-2024), medium- (2019-2030), and long-term (2019-2045) plans to promote gender equity. in this regard, CPuT has been approached to partner the NPC and the Presidential review Committee to produce work on the status of gender equity at universities.

in support of the national governmentsponsored efforts to promote women’s emancipation, universities may also make a number of further contributions. They can produce relevant, context-specific research; engage critically to place issues relating to gender and women on the national agenda; and act as think-tanks to highlight experiences that would otherwise not gain prominence, interrogating and sharpening the debate on issues affecting women and lGBTQia+ communities. Broadly, universities should seek to reclaim their rightful, progressive place in the public sphere, shaping the discourse and advocating particular policy positions to support women.

as an initial step, tertiary institutions can play an important role by conducting research on violations of gender rights, providing the evidence to back socialmovement activism and campaigns for alternative approaches to promoting gender equity. evidence produced to high academic standards can be deployed to leverage the impacts of socialmovement activism for the comprehensive emancipation of women. accordingly, universities may seek to publish policy briefs in support of efforts to produce