South Africa's Women’s Month: “Empowered Women, Empower Nations”

Since 1994, August has been declared Women’s Month in South Africa, and Aug. 9 is Women’s Day. This was an acknowledgement of the role women played in the liberation of South Africa from apartheid to democracy. This date emanates from Aug. 9, 1956, when more than 20,000 women from all walks of life, regardless of race, colour or creed, marched to the Union Building — the seat of the South African Government — to protest the extension of the pass laws to Black women. Pass laws were a form of a do