In 1956, more than 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings to protest the extension of pass laws. Their actions challenged a fundamentally unjust system and laid the foundation for generations of women to participate more fully in South Africa’s political, social and economic life. That legacy is not a once-a-year conversation. Empowerment — and the digital conditions that now make it possible — must be treated as a priority every month.
‘Empowered women, empowered nations’ remains a powerful call. It also prompts a question we should be asking throughout the year, not only when women’s issues are in the public spotlight: what does empowerment look like in today’s South Africa?
Women are leading corporations, government institutions, universities, civil society organisations and community development initiatives. Women now make up 46% of judges in South Africa’s Superior Courts and 52% of magistrates (though still only three of the JSE Top 40 companies have a female CEO). Representation in leadership is laudable but exists alongside persistent structural inequalities. According to Statistics South Africa, women continue to face higher unemployment rates (35.9%) than men (31.0%).1
Women remain disproportionately represented among those living in poverty and still shoulder the greatest burden of unpaid care work. We must acknowledge progress, but we cannot ignore persistent economic inequality despite advances in representation. Nowhere is this gap wider than in the digital economy: women worldwide are 12% less likely than men to use mobile internet, and in sub-Saharan Africa that gap widens to 26% – among the highest in the world.2
These realities require us to rethink what economic inclusion means in an increasingly digital world. As economies become more digitised, access to affordable connectivity, digital skills and digital infrastructure has become a prerequisite for meaningful participation in economic and social life. Increasingly, access to employment, entrepreneurship opportunities, education, financial services, government services, and international markets is mediated through digital technologies. Economic inclusion and gender equality cannot be separated from digital inclusion. The United Nations estimates that closing the gender digital divide could add $1.5 trillion to global GDP and lift 30 million women out of poverty.3
Millions of South Africans remain excluded from opportunities, but the digital divide disproportionately affects women. While regulatory interventions have contributed to reducing the average cost of mobile data over recent years, connectivity is still unaffordable for many low-income households. South Africa now meets international benchmarks for mobile data affordability, but it still has the highest entry-level mobile broadband cost of any BRICS country, and remains pricier than regional peers such as Botswana and Mauritius.4 For women supporting families on constrained incomes, purchasing data often competes directly with basic household necessities. Digital exclusion has a cascading effect, limiting women’s ability to search for employment, grow businesses, access online learning opportunities, engage with digital financial services and participate in an economy that is increasingly dependent on technology.
This is particularly concerning in a country where an estimated 66.7% of the population continues to live below the upper-bound national poverty line, and women continue to experience higher poverty rates than men (39.7% vs 36.0%, under the lower-bound poverty line).5 It intersects with other structural barriers that continue to shape women’s lived realities.
One of the most significant barriers is gender-based violence (GBV), and increasingly that threat follows women into the digital sphere too. South Africa continues to experience alarmingly high levels of violence against women: in the first three months of 2026 alone, police recorded 9 782 rape cases nationally, and the country’s femicide rate remains about six times the global average.67 GBV increasingly takes digital forms, from cyberstalking to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images: a study across five countries, including South Africa, found that 28% of women had experienced some form of online violence. Digital exclusion cuts the other way as well, limiting survivors’ access to helplines and support services when they need them most. Economic exclusion, digital exclusion and GBV reinforce one another, creating overlapping barriers to development.
In this landscape, social investors must rethink not only what is funded, but how we invest; sustainable impact cannot be achieved through one-size-fits-all interventions that ignore digital inequality. These are not seasonal talking points. They should shape funding, policy and partnership decisions every month of the year. First, development is contextual. Women’s digital and economic inclusion will not look the same across South Africa. The realities facing women in KwaZulu-Natal or Northern Cape, where gender-based violence remains particularly prevalent, differ significantly from those in Gauteng. Effective social investment begins by understanding these local contexts and designing interventions that respond to them.
Second, social investors must move beyond seeing women as beneficiaries and recognise them as partners in their own development. Trusted community-based organisations, local leaders and women themselves are best positioned to define what meaningful sustainable development looks like within their communities and drive local inclusive economic development. This is especially true in the digital economy. Closing Africa’s digital divide is less about how much capital is available than about how that capital is used. Too much of it still moves as short-term charity rather than long-term partnership.8 Blended finance, where public and private funders share risk and commit to patient, long-term impact rather than quick returns, offers a practical (and often catalytic) way to channel investment into community-based digital projects and provide support to women-led businesses going digital.
Finally, social investment must move beyond short-term interventions towards systems change. Our work at Tshikululu has taught us that emergency support and once-off programmes remain important in responding to immediate needs. However, systemic challenges such as poverty, unemployment, digital exclusion and gender inequality require long-term investment in institutions, partnerships, digital capability, infrastructure and leadership. One concrete step in this direction is a dedicated digital infrastructure impact facility: a blended-finance vehicle to fund community-based digital projects, digital skills training and women-led digital businesses at scale.
South African women marched to demand freedom, dignity and equal opportunity. Today, the struggle for equality has entered a new frontier: in 2026, economic inclusion is inseparable from digital inclusion. If we are serious about empowering women to empower the nation, digital inequality cannot be a peripheral issue discussed only within the technology sector, or revived only in commemorative seasons. It must become central to South Africa’s development agenda — a priority every month, not only when women’s empowerment is in the news.
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Alan Straton
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