Breaking Barriers: South African Women Empowered to Achieve Economic Inclusion

The theme for International Women’s Day 2023 is all about embracing equity and why equal opportunities are not enough. This theme is important in light of the ongoing gender inequality that women face worldwide. Despite significant progress, marginalized women of colour still face numerous barriers to equality and equity, including unequal pay, limited access to education and healthcare, and gender-based violence and discrimination.

Africa has the ability to create change in achieving gender equality by reimagining how businesses are built. AMAZI is a social impact brand and ecosystem created by women, for women, that works to empower economically excluded women in South Africa. Founded by Divya Vasant and Lisa Mgcotyelwa in 2018, these two social entrepreneurs have been innovating around the idea of bringing social justice through a commercial framework. Since AMAZI’s infancy, the company’s core mission has always been to educate women of colour in South Africa and even as the ecosystem grows, the core mission remains. This is what embracing equity looks like to us.