Thousands of South Africans have changed their social media profiles to purple in a powerful wave of digital solidarity with the Women for Change movement. Last Friday (21 November), the movement urged women to “withdraw from the economy for one day”, and lie down for 15 minutes at 12 noon in honour of the 15 females who are murdered in the country every day.
They also demanded that gender-based violence GBV be declared a national disaster. The demand was initially turned down by Government, but the G20 Women’s Shutdown, as the Friday event was named, prompted the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) to backtrack. Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa announced that the NDMC had classified GBV and femicide a disaster following “a thorough reassessment of previous reports and updated submissions from organs of state as well as civil organisations”.
Anna Collard, SVP of content strategy at security awareness firm KnowBe4 Africa, said: “This massive ‘purple wave’ online is a phenomenal display of digital activism and solidarity. It shows how technology can be harnessed to mobilise, to give survivors a voice, and to demand accountability on a global stage, especially during the G20 Summit.
“The same digital tools that connect and empower us have become weapons used against many women in modern forms of gender-based violence. Growing evidence shows how online spaces fuel misogyny and normalise physical GBV.
“This threat is compounded by a significant gender gap in technology access: according to the ITU, only 32% of African women use the internet, compared to 42% of men. While several barriers contribute to this gap, such as financial accessibility, the prevalence of online GBV only makes matters worse, further discouraging women from participating in digital spaces.”
The UN Secretary-General’s 2024 report highlights three critical emerging threats:
- Increasing backlash against women’s rights
- Rapid growth of AI technology
- Spread of the “manosphere” (online misogynistic content) into mainstream culture, which influences public attitudes and drives violence against women.
“The fight for women’s safety has definitely also moved into the digital realm,” says Collard. “We are talking about misogynistic narratives spread by influencer types, abusers using spyware to monitor their partners’ every move, cyberstalking, ‘revenge porn’, or creation of deepfake, AI generated intimate images to embarrass or harass, doxxing to expose personal information, and relentless online harassment.
“This isn’t ‘lesser’ violence; it is a profound violation of safety and privacy that inflicts severe psychological trauma and often serves as a precursor to, or enabler of physical violence.”
As the Women for Change movement succeeds in its demands that GBV be declared a national disaster, Collard argues that digital literacy must be seen as an essential component of protecting and empowering women.
“In this context, cybersecurity awareness is a fundamental life skill and a tool for self-defence. This is about giving women the practical knowledge to control their digital footprint, secure their devices and online profiles, recognise the red flags of digital stalking or harassment, and understand the legal recourse options available.”
The Women’s Rights Online (part of the World Wide Web Foundation) outlines the following steps that should be taken by policymakers to address the digital gender gap and build an inclusive internet for us all:
- Strengthen women rights online and offline
- Invest in digital skills and data literacy education
- Ensure that all citizens have affordable and meaningful access to the internet
- Stimulate supply (and creation) of relevant content and services for women online
- Adopt and integrate concrete gender equity targets into national ICT policies .
“This is an issue that needs a lot more awareness,” says Collard. “True freedom and safety, which is the ultimate goal of the Women for Change movement, must extend to all the spaces we as women occupy – and that includes our digital lives.”