African women have for long been the mainstay of African family and community systems and the builders of social and community capital. Their resourcefulness enables them to make great contributions to economic, political and social life. Indeed, over the past two decades Africa’s women have made much progress. Women are now visible as heads of state, as ministers, as members of parliament, as senior members of the judiciary and in other key public leadership positions. They are also active in the economic and professional spheres as investors and industrialists, bankers, lawyers, teachers, and others.

As business people, women play an increasingly important role in the modern formal and informal economies. They run tens of thousands of the most successful businesses and savings and credit schemes. However, since women own significantly less assets than men, they are proportionately less able to access credit from formal financial institutions, and to benefit from public procurement and the many incentives laid out by African governments to attract and generate investments and jobs.

In public life, women are still critically underrepresented across Africa. There are far less women members of parliament, cabinet ministers and senior civil service positions than there should be. There are also far too few women in the judicial arm of government, in the military, and in elected local government.

Within our families and in the formal and informal economies women’s labour and intellectual input is under-recognized and inadequately rewarded. This denies them the opportunities that come with skill and hard work. Women also continue to face numerous barriers in accessing land and other productive resources, crops, livestock, and natural resources.

Since Africa's women produce much of the food, and provide much of the unskilled labour, they are especially vulnerable to changes and shocks to economic systems, such as reforming economies, inflation, and state instability.

As a result women have to manage their lives in uncertain and unrewarding environments. Unfair international trade policies, climate change, and the weakness of co-operatives and government-run extension services in the aftermath of the shift towards free market policies continue to have a negative impact on those working in agriculture.

While women have been at the heart of family and community responses to external challenges such as HIV and AIDS, their social, cultural, and economic vulnerability has meant that they are also more likely than men to suffer the greater burden of Africa’s health epidemics. More women than men are thus infected with HIV, and more women than men are engaged in caring for persons with HIV and AIDS and other diseases.