This Sunday, South Africa commemorates the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Women's March, a landmark event in the struggle against white minority rule. On that day, approximately 20,000 women of all races marched to the administrative capital of Pretoria to protest apartheid-era laws that forced Black women to carry passes, which severely restricted their movement. While the march remains a powerful symbol of resistance, many South African women today argue that the fight for true freedom is far from over, as they continue to face significant hurdles including poverty, systemic inequality, and high rates of gender-based violence.
Ramnie Dinat, now 84, was only a teenager during the Aug. 9, 1956, rally. She remembers helping her mother, Ama Naidoo, an anti-apartheid activist, organize women for the event. The protest saw a diverse coalition of Black women, women of Indian heritage like Naidoo, and even some white women standing together. "Black women were organizing, and Indian women couldn’t be silent," Dinat told the Associated Press. She added that at the time, none of them imagined that "history would remember that day." She noted that they were simply ordinary women who believed they could make a difference and that taking a stand was the right thing to do.
The legacy of this struggle is physically anchored at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg, where the former Women’s Jail now stands as a museum. During the apartheid era, this prison was a cornerstone of the segregationist system, where many of the march's leaders and participants were held. Nolubabalo Memese, the Visitors Services Manager at the site, explained that the prison was designed to dehumanize and break those held within its walls. She noted that Black women were often denied basic dignity, such as being forbidden from wearing underwear or accessing proper sanitary towels. Today, the museum serves as a reminder of the country's journey from oppression to democracy, honoring not only famous icons like Albertina Sisulu and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela but also the thousands of ordinary women whose names are often missing from history books.
Despite the end of apartheid in 1994, modern challenges continue to restrict the freedom of South African women. A 2024 study supported by U.N. Women found that more than one in three South African women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Memese described this persistent gender-based violence as a "different monster" that acts as a barrier to freedom of movement and economic participation. She noted that the fear of crime often dictates daily life, stating, "If you want to go jog at six o’clock and it’s a bit dark, you’d rather not." The United Nations has characterized these high rates of violence against women and girls as a "national wound" and a crisis.
Economic disparity also remains a significant obstacle. Government data shows that women in South Africa are more likely to be unemployed than men, often shoulder the burden of unpaid care work, and remain underrepresented in senior leadership positions. Paralympic wheelchair tennis champion Kgothatso Montjane, 40, who won the 2024 Wimbledon wheelchair doubles title, emphasized that structural inequalities persist in sports as well. While she is the first Black South African woman to compete in all four major tennis tournaments, she highlighted that financial barriers often dictate who can reach elite levels. "The barriers I had to overcome… in a sport like tennis, it’s just a financial issue," she said, adding that the sport remains largely dominated by those with greater resources.
Despite these ongoing struggles, Montjane believes the women of 1956 successfully "paved the way" for her generation. This sense of continuity is reflected in the museum itself, where bricks from the demolished apartheid-era jail were repurposed to build the current facility. Memese believes this is a vital lesson, stating, "We are using the bricks of the past to build our future. Once we forget the past, it’s very easy for us to make the same mistakes." For Dinat, the message remains as urgent as it was 70 years ago: "Every generation has its own struggles, and every generation has to decide whether it will stand up for what is right."
