(2017) 1 African Human Rights Yearbook 21 In the area of formal employment, because of gender imbalances, women are more disadvantaged than their male counterparts because they constitute, generally speaking, a minority of the workforce. Since women face multiple hurdles to formal employment, they dominate the challenging informal sector as street or market vendors. The earnings of women are generally lower than those of their male counterparts owing to the nature of the jobs that they do. These jobs offer no income security. As a result, women generally tend to be economically dependent on their partners who, invariably, seem to be in more secure employment. Problems faced by women in the labour sector include wage discrimination; access to largely low-income earning positions such as cleaners, maids, secretaries, waitresses, receptionists, and so on; non-payment of full maternity leave pay; and the unceremonious replacement of women who take maternity leave beyond a certain number of weeks. 4 CONCLUSION Women are victims of gender based violence, including in some cases extrajudicial killings, due to several contributing factors, the overriding ones being socialisation and patriarchy. Certain cultural practices as well as the social, economic and political make-up of the African society serve to entrench the subordination of women to the power and authority of men, rendering women vulnerable to violence. The coexistence of two or more systems of law, sometimes with incompatible norms and philosophies of law, produces enormous challenges in certain instances. The justice system is not always an adequate and enabling environment that is sensitive to the protection of women against all forms of violence. Changes in attitudes and in the law would certainly improve the problem of vulnerability of women to extrajudicial killings. Tackling this problem requires first and foremost political will on the part of African governments. It requires that men and women develop the willingness to address the problem. The key lies in educating and empowering women to be independent, to be responsible for their own lives and to take the lead in their own ‘emancipation’ by deconstructing narratives, customs, practices, laws and institutions that lead to the subordination of women and that facilitate violence of any kind against women. It is crucial to have the active involvement of socialisation agents (families, schools, media, faith organisations, and traditional structures) in deconstructing every harmful and socialisation narrative. There are credible measures that governments in Africa can adopt to address the problem under consideration. These include: adopting best practices from countries that have dealt decisively with the problem; fostering a climate of non-discriminatory legal accountability for all killings; identifying and abolishing through law and other measures all harmful cultural practices; encouraging women to take the lead in the fight against gender based violence; initiating educational