Men Who Honour Women’s Leadership
The ANC Women’s League taught the country many lessons — courage, unity, strategy — but there is another lesson that is often forgotten:
Their movement was strengthened by men who respected their leadership.
Not men who tried to take charge,
not men who tolerated them as an afterthought,
but men who made a deliberate choice:
to honour women’s authority.
During the Struggle years, several men acted quietly but meaningfully:
• They helped hide meeting notes and banned pamphlets.
• They transported women across unsafe borders and police zones.
• They helped run safe-houses.
• They protected women organisers during midnight raids.
• They followed women’s strategic direction instead of questioning it.
This was honour in action.
These men understood that supporting women did not threaten their masculinity — it strengthened it.
Today, when we confront gender-based violence in the DeafBlind community, this historical lesson matters deeply.
We do not only need men who are “not violent.”
We need men who are actively honourable.
Men who:
• stand up for DeafBlind women when systems ignore them
• speak out when other men disrespect boundaries
• step forward to ensure accessibility
• help make shelters, services and justice processes safer
• support rather than silence
• uplift women’s voices rather than overshadow them
This is what honourable masculinity looks like.
It is protective without controlling, strong without aggression, supportive without needing applause.
Just like in the ANC Women’s League era, men who honour women become pillars of change.
They do not steal the spotlight —
they hold the foundation steady.
This is the kind of man who transforms a community.
This is the kind of man who shifts culture.
This is the kind of man who helps end GBV, not just talk about it.