ABSTRACT
A poignant question is how much progress has been made towards gender equality in a context "where the Government has made it a key priority in the transformation of South Africa?". This chapter discusses to interrogate this question by providing a historical overview of the absence of gender equality during apartheid and the effects of new dispensation legislative interventions to achieve equality. The OSW (Office on the Status of Women) developed South Africa's National Policy Framework for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality (NGPF) under the direction of the Presidency in accordance with its jurisdiction over the national gender programme as guided by the vision of equal and inalienable rights of all men and women enshrined in the Bill Rights of the South African Constitution. In sum, the current South African political and social context suggests the climate for gender equality is not the same as it was in the immediate post-apartheid period.
