Gender and affirmative action in South Africa: A case study on women empowerment in the Department of Education in Mthatha district offices.: subtitle if needed. If no subtitle follow instructions in manual

Abstract The main objective of this study has been to investigate the implementation of the affirmative action on the basis of gender balancing in the Department of Education in Mthatha District offices. The affirmative action policy is the program that seeks to remedy the past discrimination ideologies like on the bases of race and gender. Gender discrimination seemed to be the worst kind of discrimination in the past. Even within the same race, there are gender biases as well as within the same classes, women are treated differently. Some women are experiencing the impact of racial discrimination and class discrimination which puts women secondary of their same racial or same class male counterpart. Some men are experiencing only racial discrimination alone while others are experiencing class discrimination. Women serve the most severe discrimination of them all in the entire country of South Africa. Affirmative action has been used as a tool to eradicate all forms of discrimination. Hence its implementation needs to be evaluated to determine its impact on the eradication of discrimination, more especially sex discrimination. Evaluation has been made possible with the help of affirmative action measures which stipulate most of the principles of the affirmative action directed especially to the employers the gender balancing in the workplace is done with the aim of empowering and advancing women as their right according to gender equality. Women are experiencing the worst kind of social injustice have ever been practiced round the globe. Every woman is experiencing gender discrimination. Even in the rich family women are treated secondary by their male counterpart throughout their history of their living. In actual fact the presence of women in these family units is to help men help the men to have boys who will takeover the patriarchal duties assigned to every men as socialize to think and behave as the head of the families. If the family does not have boys who will later changed to be men, that family previously does run the risk of loosing the rights every households have where there are men. These girls to overcome the barriers of not having men and loose the right mention above they will marry men who will protect the right of their family. Previously, the family that did not have male will run the risk also of being robbed of their land and accused of black magic and the girls being raped. Some of the things that used to happen in the past are happening right now. Although women are promised the full dignity they deserve but some of the worst things that often happen to them in the past are still happening presently owing to the lack of political will to change the patriarchal system which is undermining the full dignity women deserve. This is viewed by Marxist feminists as being caused by the economic mode of production presently operating ‘capitalism’. The Marxist feminist suggests that there shall be no social justice if capitalism is still in place. Therefore they suggested that the only thing to eradicate is to eradicate the present form of production. The liberal feminist claim that the cause of the situation women found themselves is the unequal distribution of resource between men and women. Therefore they advocated that there should be equal rights between men and women as well as equal distribution of resources to men and women. Women must be empowered politically so as to have the equal voice like men. They must emanicipate themselves from the bondages of patriarchal ideologies. Women are just biological different from men but have equal mental capabilities as that of men. The equals should be treated equal and the unequals should be treated unequal. The differences we have should not be made as bases for treating others as unequal. The resources in our societies should be distributed equal among the demographics we have in our societies. The population of the country matters in terms of the countries prestige in terms of economic power. The more the population the country has the more powerful the country will be. In actual fact, the more productive the population of the country is the more productive the country will be. However, the less the productive the population of the country is, the lesser the productivity the country will be. Hence women should also be empowered economically.Thesis (MMED) -- Faculty of HUMANITIES, SOCIAL SCIENCES and LAW, 201