South Africa: Rights of Passage

In South Africa, a large percentage of women face a system of entrenched discrimination as they seek to enter the work force. Most women at the community level have no access to economic rights or opportunities, and as a result rank among the poorest in their society. They are ruled by traditional cultural norms that leave them vulnerable to unchecked domestic and public violence. In a country where unemployment and poverty are rife, women are even more vulnerable than their male counterparts, and fight an uphill battle just to stay above the poverty line.