'Prisoners of patriarchy'

7% of women aged 18 and older experience violence annually.

- Brian Sokutu

With President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday calling for an end to the massive inequality in income between men and women, two leading gender experts say women are still imprisoned by patriarchy.

This, despite the strides made in achieving gender parity in South Africa's 30 years of democracy.

Ramaphosa also used his Women's Day speech at the Denis Nel Stadium in Pofadder, Northern Cape, to highlight SA's alarming Ievels of gender-based violence.

Quoting Human Sciences Research Council statistics during his speech, Ramaphosa said 7% of women aged 18 and older experienced physical or sexual violence annually.

He said 7% "may not sound like a lot, [but] it is equivalent to 1.5 million women who are abused and violated". A total of 13% of women have suffered economic abuse by intimate partners.

As South African women earned a quarter of their income from grants, Ramaphosa called for more jobs to be created.

He urged for "more economic opportunities for women, so they are less vulnerable to exploitation and abuse™ "We need to address the massive inequality in income between men and women," he added.