Women’s Month must move beyond praising women for surviving systems that should be transformed

South Africa's public services are often paid for by women through their unpaid labour and time. Women disproportionately bear the costs of unaffordable childcare, inaccessible clinics, and food shortages. Their work is not reflected in government budgets or national accounts, but is essential to the functioning of the economy. Despite South Africa's Constitution guaranteeing equality and access to essential services, the reality is that women often experience disproportionate burdens.

Public service failures, such as unreliable water supply or inadequate healthcare, translate into unpaid nursing, transport, and childcare for women. This has serious implications for women's human rights and their ability to fully participate in society. Women must move beyond simply being praised for their resilience and instead demand that the systems be transformed.

This requires regular measurement of unpaid care work, gendered time-impact assessments for public service decisions, treating care as essential infrastructure, redistributing responsibility for care, and ensuring gender equality in all aspects of society.