Women hold up half the sky, says an old Chinese proverb. It reminds us, as Women’s Month begins, that women and men are equal partners in shouldering life’s responsibilities.

In fact, in the daily business of keeping homes and societies running smoothly, I suspect women bear more than their fair share of the burden.

It’s a burden borne in far too many ways. Top of the list are inexcusable levels of sexual violence and abuse. The Modimolle case is the tip of the iceberg in a nation with close to three women murdered daily, mostly by their intimate partners.

At the same time, exploitative and discriminatory attitudes and practices regularly surface across public life. Other burdens range from sexual objectification to misogynist so-called humour; and from coercive relationships, in which women are viewed as little more than property, to the impossible images of so-called beauty that are all around us.

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