What each of us holds to be true is a combination of our cultural and religious beliefs, our experiences, observations and learning in general. Through our successes and failures we build critical analytical skills which lead to greater self-confidence and success. As empowered as I have been - simply by virtue of the fact that I was born white in a colonised part of Africa - it has taken courage to confront gender equity issues on the home front and in the workplace and wisdom to know when and how to do it. The biggest challenge South Africa has in order to overcome the gender imbalance is the need for economic empowerment and transformation broadly in response to the legacy of apartheid. This makes the job so much bigger and gender equity can get lost in the enormity of the task. Women are only really empowered when they become financially independent. This begins with access to early childhood development, basic education and higher learning institutions. To succeed in business however, women need to be able to access and mobilise private and public investments, benefit from public procurement, access finance and business development support, improve their skills, participate in
