In working to end violence against women and children, we need to ensure that men are centrally involved. Men need to organise themselves in a sustained campaign against gender-based violence.
Cyril RamaphosaRead
No man is born believing that he has dominion over women. Instead, this view is handed down from generation to generation and amplified through social custom, culture, and popular media.
Interpretation
Beliefs about gender dominance are learned and perpetuated by society rather than being innate.
This quote by Cyril Ramaphosa emphasizes that the idea of male dominance over women is not something inherent at birth but rather a learned behavior that is transmitted through various societal channels such as customs, culture, and media. It suggests that patriarchal beliefs are not natural but constructed, highlighting the need to challenge and change these longstanding narratives to promote equality.
In practice
In a discussion about gender equality at a conference.
In working to end violence against women and children, we need to ensure that men are centrally involved. Men need to organise themselves in a sustained campaign against gender-based violence.
There are times when leadership needs to take a bold move forward. And there are times when the leadership needs to act on the basis of what the grass roots say. You need to have your political thermometer constantly in the political waters to know when to give leadership in what way.
We need to mobilise our structures and our supporters to oppose state capture and corruption in whatever form it takes.
Violence against women and children resembles an epidemic. It has spread through society, sparing no social group or class.
We must listen to the concerns of our people without dismissing them. When people see something wrong, there is something wrong. When our people see corruption, it means there is corruption. When our people see that their resources are being stolen by certain people, it means this is happening, and we should listen.
Land is a very broad as well as a complex issue, and it has to be handled very delicately because around land, there is quite a lot of emotion.
That is life for a Saudi woman: wherever we go, whatever we achieve, we are the property of a man.
People disappeared, reappeared, made plans to go somewhere, and then lost each other, searched for each other, found each other a few feet away.
That’s always the hardest thing when someone completely has you fooled so much, that you think they’re just never going to hurt you, then they do. That’s when you get the worst heartbreak.
I find that in this day and generation, the meanest men have the lowest estimate of woman; that the greater the man is, the grander he is, the more he thinks of mother, wife and daughter.
Expressing our vulnerability can help resolve conflicts.
God calls all of his children to the table. We can disagree and even say a lot of hateful things, but what we can't do in good conscience is leave the table. Or demand that someone else not be at the table.
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