An Assessment of W omen’s P articipation in South Africa’s Foreign Policy Decision-Making and Execution Partisipasi Perempuan dalam Pengambilan

This study aims to assess women's participation in decision-making and implementation of South African foreign policy. This research is motivated by the significant dominance of male gender participation and leadership in DIRCO related to female participation since 1994. This study uses Intersectionality theory and Kanter's Theory to support this research with qualitative methods. The findings of this study indicate that women's participation is less than 50% when they hold junior positions. It found that challenges limiting women's involvement in foreign policy decision-making include unfavorable cultural and traditional norms, religious practices, lack of support for women, attitudes of influential men, financial problems, and lack of representation in politics.


INTRODUCTION
South African women have always remained in the second echelon of culture despite their various ethnic origins. Past policies and practices, such as political parties' leadership representation, deliberately benefited men, particularly white ones. The dominant ideology of masculinity and male dominance has become a global problem that defies the socio-political and economic aspects of liberal democratic states (Haastrup, 2020;Mathur-Helm, 2005). This socio-cultural ideology identifies women as inferior to men in both classes and assigns them the status of minors in both the public and private spheres of existence (National Gender Policy Framework, 2003). In the 21st century, the lack of women's inclusion and limited participation of women in leadership positions and decision-making remain barriers to fair political participation and sustainable development in a democratic setting.
According to Kimbu and Ngoasong (2016), women are often confronted with circumstances in which they play a supporting role in the management of the internal and external relations of the state, irrespective of their power.
However, Williams (Williams, 2016) argues that the South African foreign policy has a packed diplomatic agenda in the country's history and that it is time for analysts to begin exploring the nature of the country's foreign policy vision as South African Diplomacy will have to address the challenges of uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in the global order.
On the international scene, before 2018, countries such as Sweden and Canada committed to pursuing the participation of females in foreign policy decision-making (Tiessen & Carrier, 2015). This commitment focuses on abolishing all aspects of gender dominance and inequality, which seeks to eradicate class assumptions (Tiessen & Carrier, 2015). This also strives to Copyright (c)  provide women with the ability to take part in decisions to serve the state and to confront the problems relevant to the international affairs and position of a nation (Robinson & Gottlieb, 2021). Junk et al. (2021) conclude that constantly changing, the world still has a long way to go toward a fair representation of women in public and private decision-making. Gender gap, women tend to experience unequal access to work and low involvement in private and public decision-making.
The Republic of South Africa has moved on from its status as the pariah regime in 1994, which had promoted racial supremacy and patriarchy, to a more inclusive democratic, non-racial and non-sexist society, based on the values of equality, and justice, fairness and non-discrimination. The preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996:1-5) further states that the aim of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution is to heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental rights. It further explains that the Republic of South Africa is founded on the values of human dignity, the achievement of equality, and the advance of human rights and freedoms such as non-racialism and nonsexism.
However, on the contrary, the role of women's participation both in the ministry and in the legislature continues to be contrasted with the participation of men (Haastrup, 2020). Perhaps the weakness in the concise paradigm is the promotion of gender equality to limit women to pure objects and the fact that gender quotas are an easy way to change feelings without improving their circumstances (Robinson & Gottlieb, 2021

RESEARCH METHOD
The study assessed women's participation in South Africa's foreign policy decision-making and execution. Three research objectives guided this study which is: 1. To evaluate the challenges of women's participation in foreign policy decision-making; 2. Foreign policy decision-making is required to ascertain the strategies that could promote women's participation in politics and the South Africa.
3. To make recommendations to promote women's participation in politics and South African foreign policy decision-making.
To achieve these objectives, a qualitative research approach was selected to collect deep meaning and information from the natural setting of the phenomena of women's participation in South Africa's foreign policy decision-making and execution. The exploratory research design was adopted for its suitability to explore the in-depth subjective views of the research participants from a natural study perspective. The study population consisted of all women in the South African diplomatic mission, particularly in the Department of International Relations and Co-operation. This study adopted a non-probability sampling method, which does not emphasize the representative nature of the sample. Non-probability sampling is a sampling approach in which the individual members of the population do not have an equal or known likelihood of being selected to be a member of the sample" (Creswell & Creswell, 2017 Relations. The participants identified were better placed in the organization to understand the questions on women's participation issues in foreign policy formulation and implementation. Normally, the educational requirement for an individual to be a diplomat is an Honours degree in political science or international relations. Therefore, the inclusion criteria will focus on participants who have attained a Degree. In addition, the researcher will not be biased on socioeconomic level and age. Exclusion criteria are males, non-South Africans, a diplomat without a degree qualification or one who is not working at the directorate level. As Ivankova (2015) argues, sampling is done from a more or less complete list of individuals in the population to be studied.
Those people who have a chance of being included constitute the sample frame. A semi-structured interview was adopted as a data collection tool for its strengths in going in-depth in data gathering. The interview guide was wellformulated with a standard mode of delivery by the researcher. The interviews were conducted face-to-face and online at the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO). The Atlas.ti software (version 9) software was used for content analysis, which is a systematic approach to classify, categorize and code observations, field notes and other interview raw data into patterns and themes and to further develop it into the findings, themes, categories, and conclusions of the study. In the presentation phase, pseudo-names ranging from PA1-PA10 were given to the participants to guarantee anonymity. All ethical observations and trustworthiness applicable to the study were duly observed.

Women's participation in politics and leadership in South Africa
The UN Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 recognized women's empowerment, thus, placing it as one of the basic and significant requirements for establishing any good democratic government across the globe. The Beijing Conference became a platform to take action through a body established at the Conference known as the Beijing Platform for Action (Padovani, 2016). This debate on an empowerment plan of action for women in the 21st century. This meeting was seen as a landmark in women's empowerment. Still, there is not much evidence today to show that the However, women in political participation in South Africa have received little concern, as a limited number of women serve as key decisionmakers in different political structures. When women are shut out, Haastrup (2020) and Kamenou (2020) emphasize that this not only implies discrimination but also undermines judgment since the reasons for such judgments have not been addressed. Perhaps, the question of patriarchal society and toxic masculinity in South African foreign policy application indicates that this approach is not adequately equitable in involving women in decision-making (Haastrup, 2020 Although the present leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa has shown concern towards the inclusion of women in the leadership and policy decision-making positions, more equitable representation is still yet to be addressed, as the majority of the executive and policy decision-making members are men. Therefore, South Africa cannot be viewed as merely a possible beneficiary of pro-gender equity and justice foreign policies but as part of the story of this form of foreign policy. However, South Africa's current foreign policy status and goals cannot be isolated from the history of its transformation from the repression of apartheid to the creation of a new, multiracial democracy. Thus, the lack of knowledge in certain sources about pro-gender or feminine foreign policy activities limits the likelihood of systematic information on female participation in South African foreign policy decision-making. Hence, there is an acute awareness of the need to address these socially constructed inequalities, which has given rise to the work of the Commission on Gender Equality in South Africa. are also seen as more honest and ethical by employees than male executives. Women have a fundamental right to participate in all political decisionmaking, including peace processes at all levels. Including women in peace processes add a broader range of perspectives and enhance the ability of peacemakers to address the concerns of a wider range of stakeholders, which has been proven to lead to more sustainable peace. Yet, women are often underrepresented or excluded from official peace processes. Therefore, mediators need to promote understanding among the conflicting parties of the value of the participation of women (Dworkin et al., 2012). Table 2 presents the women's representation in the democratic South African Parliament.

Responses obtained from research objective one
This section perused the challenges of women's participation in foreign policy decision-making. This objective was included in the study to identify the limitations and possible challenges hindering South African women from participating actively in foreign policy decision-making. This section only presented the findings obtained from the study and the direct excerpts obtained from the participants. The responses from the participants are presented in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Challenges of women's participation in foreign policy decision-making process
According to Figure 1, the participants indicated that challenges in including women in the foreign policy decision-making process include cultural and traditional norms, religious practices, lack of support for women, an influential attitude of men, financial issues, lack of participation in the decision-making process, and under-representation in politics. Direct excerpts from the participants are as follows: P2 said: "Challenges of women's participation in foreign policy decision-making process includes male chauvinistic attitude, custom and tradition". P3 suggested: "It incorporates religious rituals and a lack of female support." Religious practices hamper women's participation in politics. Laws, standards, and religious beliefs that have been crafted to legitimize male domination and the relegation of women to the periphery of political discursive practices and engagements POLITICON : Jurnal Ilmu Politik Vol.4 No.2 ; hurt women. Although the South African Constitution guarantees everyone the right to freedom of religion and association, it is argued that these rights are only ideas. In reality, many women's lives are governed by customary Sharia Laws. Some Islamic ideologies, for example, forbid women from actively participating in political activities, forming associations, or giving public remarks, obstructing their political goals." P4 said: "Challenges of women's participation in the foreign policy decision-making process include men's hostility towards women and wrong perception about women". P5 said: "Diplomacy is still a male-dominated field, and most women are subjected to great injustice. When posted abroad, for example, women officials, in the event that they fall pregnant, are entitled to come home at their own cost. Secondly, they would have to return to their country of accreditation in 60 days; this places women and their newborns in a very difficult position as, in most cases, they would have to travel with infants as young as three weeks. This needs to be rethought as it doesn't make sense as they have four months' maternity. What is the rationale in having them to risk their lives?". P6 said: "Women are under-represented in politics which is one of the determinants that shift foreign policy of the country". P7 said: "Women participate in decision-making at a lower level because they must always struggle against patriarchy. Very few women participate in decision-making compared to the population of women". P8 affirmed: "Structural limitations on women. Because majority decision makers are men, women continue to be on the sidelines though a few advances have been achieved. Though measures are put in place for gender equality it is difficult to implement them because of social constructs that reinforce and reproduce patriarchy". P9 attested: "Financial problems. Women's economic position to a great degree, plays a substantial role in increasing their involvement in political decision-making posts. Politics is progressively becoming an expensive venture. Recently, a lot of money is required before a candidate can participate in politics. Women's long history of segregation continues to keep them at a financial disadvantage. The entrenched gender discrimination gave men additional financial cleavage to accomplish their political ambitions. Most women do not have the financial buoyancy to accomplish their political ambitions, as they have to rely solely on their men to get financial support, and most sponsors choose to support male politicians because they are perceived as more successful in politics than their female counterparts. Empowering women economically and providing them with access to education and information helps them overcome household challenges impeding them from full involvement in politics and political elections". P10 affirmed: "Women's ability to act politically both inside and outside the voting booth, particularly as community organizers and elected officials, is often moulded by norms that drive wider social structures." An entrenched patriarchal system in which males have family authority and decision-making power is fundamental to the limits that women endure. Traditional views and cultural attitudes about women's duties and standing in society are still strong, particularly in rural regions. Traditional gender roles and labour divisions are still obviously gendered. Social standards make it harder for women to quit their traditional domestic duties in favour of more public roles outside the home. Women's gender identity is still primarily seen as domestic, which continues to be a barrier to women's participation in international affairs."

Responses obtained from research objective two
This section explored the strategies that could be adopted to improve The findings as presented in Figure 2 portrays that strategies to improve the participation of women includes involving women as leaders, promoting gender equality, women's empowerment, laws against domestic violence, public lobbying and sensitization, training of more women, and redressing cultural barriers.
P1 said: "Involving more women to head foreign policy decisionmaking bodies will improve women's participation in the decisionmaking process". P2 suggested: "Quota laws and gender equality and women's empowerment should be addressed. Also law against domestic violence should be enforced". There should be economic empowerment programmers for women and girls". P4 said: "Deliberate policy and laws that compel everyone to observe public lobby and sensitization, and mass mobilization". P5 attested: "There needs to be more investment in training. Government institutions must stop operating in silos and work towards more coordinated efforts". P6 said: "The establishment of a women's branch or a women's policy committee can be the vehicle for beginning the change in male attitudes and a first step in the campaign for affirmative action. Attracting women into the party to get the votes needed to have influence in party decision-making or policy forums is also a vital step. A women's branch can be a more comfortable place for women entering politics for the first time". P7 said: "Empowering women with more skills and education will boost their confidence and open more opportunities for them that will allow them to be mentally sharp and independent thinkers". P8 said: "Facilitating conditions conductive to the speeding of equality between men and women so that women can participate in the political, social and economic life of their country on equal terms with men and ensuring that their right to own property as well as their other human rights are respected and that they are not excluded from the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour or from performing public functions and being decision-makers". "Facilitating the necessary conditions whereby rural women can have access to basic social services and to ways and means of lightening their workload" "Support for women to organize themselves into groups, networks and associations". P9 attested: "Gender-based violence is a major source of worry in South Africa, impacting both women and children. A third of women will encounter sexual violence over their lifetime. The media reports a heinous incident of gender-based violence against women and girls every day in South Africa. According to the government, men should be involved in eliminating violence against women and promoting gender equality. If the death penalty is implemented in the country, many women will be rescued from violence and violent killings, and women will be able to participate freely without fear." P10 said: "We must address culture as a barrier to advancement and push for women's affirmative action. Remove substantial structural impediments entrenched in custom, culture, religion, and tradition that prevent women from holding decision-making roles." "Revamp and scale up capacity building for women in politics and leadership: Initiatives to strengthen the knowledge, information, and gender analysis capacities of female members of Parliament and diplomats should be scaled up to give women the confidence to keep their seats and inspire other women to vote." "Political parties must encourage women's engagement by providing free membership to women, so that money is not a barrier to women entering politics because more women in politics can influence decision-making in South African governance."

Discussion
Findings from the study reveal that South African women have been marginalized in foreign policy decision-making duties. This finding conforms to those of Krook (2020), who states that biased laws and norms continue to obstruct women's effective participation in foreign policy decision-making in South Africa. Tlaiss and Kauser (2019) agree that many civilizations' customs and laws are one-sided in modern times, enslaving women to men and so undermining their confidence. Women have a sense of mediocrity due to their sexual orientation predisposition, social standards, and actions, putting them at a disadvantage compared to their male counterparts in the socio-political arena (Plagerson et al., 2019). As a result of these communally formed conventions and customary roles, women are forced to undervalue their obligations as women by embracing nomenclature such as the 'weaker sexes,' and they are bullied into believing that they cannot reach exceptional achievement as men (Asongu et al., 2020). Robinson and Gottlieb (2021) view that religious practices obstruct women's participation in politics. By-laws, norms, and religious ideals that that have been crafted to approve male supremacy and the relegation of women to the periphery of political discursive practices and engagements have a negative impact on women (Robinson & Gottlieb, 2021). Even though the South African Constitution guarantees everyone the right to religious and political equality, research demonstrates that these rights are only opinions .
In a true sense, many women's lives are governed by customary and Sharia Laws. Some Islamic principles, for example, forbid women from actively participating in political activity, association, or marriage.
Regarding the strategies to improve women's participation in decisionmaking, findings suggest empowering women would be a solution to achieving equitable representation and participation in foreign policy decision-making.
Lv and Deng (2019) point out that women's empowerment promotes their involvement in collective actions and their self-efficacy, ability to contribute to policymaking, bargaining power, leadership capability, resource ownership, and financial independence. However, Barnes and Holman (2020) posit that the representation of women could be improved by promoting gender equality. Barnes and Holman (2020) further affirm that establishing a quota system will establish a predetermined amount of participation for both genders to ensure that decision-making bodies are representative. A quota system is an affirmative action tool that ensures that women are represented in decision-making and policy-making bodies (Labantu, 2021). Quotas, as temporary special measures, are aimed to accelerate de facto parity between men and women, according to Article 4 of the CEDAW Protocol, and are not to be viewed as unequal as specified in the present Convention.
The facilitation of a public lobby and sensitization or training of more women in politics, according to Beauregard (2017), would serve as a means to promote women's participation and representation in decision-making. A prohibition on laws, rituals, and traditions that delegitimize women's positions will help protect women from participating in active politics.

CONCLUSION
Over the years, males have dominated South African political decisionmaking, and office holding has been dominated by males, while females hold supporting positions. This study, therefore, explored the extent of women's participation in decision-making and execution in South African foreign policy.
Four research objectives guided the study. Data were collected from ten participants using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Atlas-ti software (version 9). Findings revealed that the participation of women in the foreign policy decision-making process is less than 50%. The study also disclosed that women are free and eligible to participate in political activities throughout South Africa. However, it was noted that women have a wide range of challenges limiting them from being involved in active politics. Still, the study emphasized the need to overlook cultural, religious, and unfavourable political environments, patriarchy, and the influential attitude of men and get