In this the 50 year commemoration of the Women's March of 1956 we celebrate the role that women have played in the making of modern South Africa and look towards their future role with confidence.History of Women’s struggle in South Africa,The 1920s - Women, employment and the changing economic scene,The 1930s - Trade unionism blossoms and women become more assertive,Women in the schizophrenic 1940s - World War II and its aftermath,The turbulent 1950s - Women as defiant activists,Women's resistance in the 1960s - Sharpeville and its aftermath,Women in the 1970s - Soweto and mounting pressure on the apartheid state,Apartheid crumbles - Women in the turmoil of the 1980s,The pre-election period - Women in the early 1990s,Women's role in the transformation of South Africa,My Spirit Is Not Banned - PART 4 by Frances Baard and Barbie Schreiner,Women’s Liberation Must Be Part Of A New South Africa by SPEAK, March 1990, Johannesburg,A Celebration Of Women Artists by SPEAK, July 1992, Johannesburg,Life Of A Women Organiser: Mama Lydia Ngwena by Jeremy Baskin(Labour Bulletin), Transvaal,Winnie Mandela: The pain and the passion by SPEAK, October 1994, Johannesburg,COSATU Women March Against The LRA by Tammy Shefer (SPEAK), 1990 – 1994, Johannesburg,ANC Women’s League: South African Women March To Freedom! The burden of agricultural work and the responsibility of keeping the family together fell entirely on their shoulders. It aimed to teach men and women in the UDF about women's oppression and to increase women's skills. There was a worldwide depression and South Africa did not escape its effects. Until the 1930s women were generally exempt from pass control but the Orange Free State was the exception; here there was a complex net of restrictions on African people, both men and women. We use to attend meetings in Johannesburg.Q: Were you not afraid for your children during the 1956 March?RM: No, we had our children on our backs during the March. The first 10 years of democracy have been remarkable in many ways but there are still a number of crucial challenges to be met.When Thabo Mbeki announced in 2005 that the newly appointed deputy president was to be Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, history was made.
President Thabo Mbeki stated categorically in his book of 2004: ‘No government in South Africa could ever claim to represent the will of the people if it failed to address the central task of emancipation of women in all its elements, and that includes the government we are privileged to lead’. In appointing women into government President Thabo Mbeki stated "No government in South Africa could ever claim to represent the will of the people if it failed to address the central task of emancipation of women in all its elements, and that includes the government we are privileged to lead." They exist because the society in which we live is divided into poor and rich, into non-European and European. Zenzele Club encouraged women to make a living from knitting. The appointment was certainly well-deserved. An organization called the Native and Coloured Women's Association was formed in 1912 to lay plans for the Free State anti-pass petitions and the deputation to the governor-general. Abdurahman was a great admirer of Gandhi’s passive resistance and he encouraged the women to invite arrest by defying the hated regulations. This was despite organisational difficulties – including police intimidation, and the banning of Josie Palmer, one of the main organisers, a week before the date of the gathering. Many African women began to consider the alternative of moving into locations near to the towns. Relocating these men meant a loss of customers. They handed their bundles of signed petitions to Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophie Williams, the main organisers, who deposited them at the ministers' office doors. They had to raise children, care for the home and see to the needs of the family. They are responsible for their own person and their children. The issues of concern to women that were listed in this women's charter were then incorporated in the new constitution and into the Bill of Rights.
After her release from detention she joined Umkhonto we Sizwe, underwent military training and later specialised in Intelligence.The Black Consciousness Movement, led by Steve Biko, was a new source of resistance that had arisen in the late 1960s among students who formed the student body SASO. A spirit of goodwill prevailed and all violence (contrary to expectations) came to a halt. Ida Mtwana was elected as national president (she was also the presiding ANCWL president), which indicated the key role the ANC (the senior partner of the Democratic Alliance) was destined to play in the new organisation. Another woman to come to the fore during the Defiance Campaign was Lilian Ngoyi, who later became president of both the ANCWL and FSAW. Subsequently it was reported that their monthly pensions would not be paid to them unless they could produce their reference books. Soon afterwards it was followed, and eventually superseded by a new, very significant women's movement, the Bantu Women's league (BWL). Callinicos writes that as early as the 1930s Afrikaans women were regarded as the main bearers of their culture.