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From Margins to Marketplaces: How Women Are Rewriting the Rules Online -National Women’s Day Edition

In our last article, “Voices Without Echoes”, we explored the kind of ethical, courageous leadership needed to build a truly inclusive South Africa. But leadership doesn’t only reside in public office. It thrives in living rooms, shebeens, kitchens, WhatsApp groups, and spaza shops, especially where South African women are building online businesses against all odds.

This Women’s Month, we spotlight how women are harnessing the digital economy to reshape their futures and their communities, often without recognition, support, or reliable data.

A New Kind of Hustle: Digital, Determined, and Defiant

From homemade beauty products sold via Instagram to WhatsApp thrift boutiques, women across South Africa are turning mobile phones into business tools and social platforms into revenue streams. With youth unemployment and gender-based exclusion limiting formal opportunities, women are creating their own spaces, digitally.

“I couldn’t find work after varsity. I started posting my crochet pieces on Facebook Marketplace. Within two months, I had three consistent clients and enough income to help my family,” – Lerato, 26, Polokwane

Wi-Fi Wounds and Data Divides

While the digital shift is empowering, it’s also deeply unequal. Women in rural areas or informal settlements face:
• Costly mobile data that eats into profit margins,
• Limited digital literacy support,
• Platforms not designed for informal entrepreneurs.

These systemic gaps risk reinforcing the same “echo chamber exclusion” discussed in our previous articles, where the same groups are celebrated, while the rest remain invisible.

Women Innovating on Their Own Terms

Despite challenges, South African women are innovating boldly:
• Instagram and TikTok shops for handmade goods, hair services, and thrift fashion
• WhatsApp-based order systems with integrated payment options like eWallet and Capitec Pay
• Micro-influencing in local communities for income and community upliftment
They are not waiting for inclusion; they are building it.

What’s Needed: A Real Springboard, Not Just Slogans

If South Africa is serious about women’s empowerment, especially in line with Vision 2050, we need:

1. Zero-rated e-commerce training hubs on platforms like Moya and Ayoba
2. Subsidised mobile data packages for women-led enterprises
3. Micro-finance schemes tailored to informal and online sellers
4. Digital safety training to counter harassment online
5. Recognition of informal online sellers in national policy frameworks

“If your policy doesn’t see me, your economy doesn’t serve me.”

Digital Power, Local Impact

Digital entrepreneurship is not just a trend, it’s a quiet revolution. Many women-led businesses:
• Fund school fees and groceries,
• Provide flexible income for single mothers and caregivers,
• Create community employment (e.g. delivery riders, suppliers, packers).

This is social impact from below, not just statistics, but stories of resilience, innovation, and power.

Final Word: The Marketplace is Political

Women may be excluded from boardrooms and national dialogues, but through data bundles and determination, they are rewriting the rules of economy and inclusion. They are shifting from margins to marketplaces and in doing so, they are leading.