Recognition and redistribution: State of the women's movement in South Africa 20 years after democratic transition

abstract

This article attempts to analyse the shift from a mass-based women's movement in the form of the Women's National Coalition in South Africa to more localised temporal movements since political transition 20 years ago. I apply Nancy Fraser's theory of recognition and redistribution to illustrate how two alliances – the Shukumisa campaign around gender-based violence and the Alliance for Rural Democracy around the Traditional Courts Bill – meet the criteria of localised temporal movements that engage the State with the intention of recognising identities and redistributing resources to promote gender equality.

keywords:

• women's movement
• recognition
• redistribution
• social movement
• community

Acknowledgement

The author thanks reviewers for helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this article.

Notes

1. For similar reflections on women's movements in other contexts see Sawer (2013).

2. See “No, the Women's Movement is not Dead”, City Press, 11 August 2012 (available at: http://www.citypress.co.za/columnists/no-the-womens-movement-is-not-dead-20120811/, site accessed May 6, 2014). This was also part of a discussion at the recent National Gender Summit of the Commission for Gender Equality (9–11 April 2014) in the small group discussion on women's mobilisation that I facilitated.

3. Kimberly Crenshaw (1989) coined the phrase “intersectionality of identities” that refers to how women are differently positioned in terms of oppression given these intersectionalities of identities. In SA the confluence of race and gender played an important role to inform the struggle for women's liberation.

4. See, for example, the collection of essays of mobilisation by grassroots women in local communities: Feminist Alternatives (2011) My Dream is to be Bold: Our Work to End Patriarchy, Cape Town: Pambazuka Press.

5. See www.womensnet.org.za/campaign/one-in-nine-campaign-solidarity-with-women.

6. The One in Nine Campaign has been more involved in contentious politics; during the celebration of SA Women's Day in 2012 they stopped an ANC Women's League celebratory march, wearing outfits with skeleton motifs to indicate that given the high levels of GBV there is nothing to celebrate.

7. Agisanang Domestic Abuse Prevention and Training, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Childline, Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit, Justice and Women, Lethabong Legal Advice Centre, Mosaic, Masimanyane Women's Support Centre, Nisaa Institute for Women's Development, People Opposing Women's Abuse, OUT, RAPCAN, Rape Crisis (Cape Town), Rape Crisis, (Port Elizabeth), Remmoho, Sonke Gender Justice Network (working with men), SWEAT (sex workers), Teddy Bear Clinic, Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Trust, Thusanang Advice Centre, Tswaranang Legal Advocacy Centre, Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women, Women and Men Against Child Abuse, Women's Net, Women's Legal Centre and Women on Farms Project.

8. For analyses of the Zuma rape trial see Robins (2008), Hassim (2009) and Suttner (2009).

9. Association for Rural Advancement; Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria; Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape (CLC); Corruption Watch; Co-operative Policy Alternative Centre; Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution; Democratic Governance and Rights Unit (DGRU), University of Cape Town (UCT); Embrace Dignity Campaign; Empilisweni AIDS Education and Training Centre; Greater Rape Intervention Programme (GRIP); Institute for Justice and Reconciliation; Justice and Women; Land Access Movement of South Africa; Centre for Law and Society, UCT; Lesbian and Gay Equality Project; Masimanyane Women's Support Centre; Open Democracy Advice Centre; Rural People's Movement; Rural Women's Movement; Rural Health Advocacy Project; Section 27; Sonke Gender Justice; South African Constitutional Literacy and Service Initiative; Students for Law and Social Justice; Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Project; Treatment Action Campaign; Triangle Project; Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre; Unemployed People's Movement; Women's Health Research Unit in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, UCT; Women's Legal Centre Trust.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amanda Gouws

AMANDA GOUWS is Professor of Political Science at the University of Stellenbosch. Her specialisation is South African politics and gender politics. She is also a feminist activist. Her research focuses on women and citizenship, the national gender machinery and representation. She is the editor of (Un)Thinking Citizenship: Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa (Ashgate and Cape Town: Juta, 2005). A new book co-edited with Daiva Stasiulis, titled Gender and Multiculturalism: North/South Perspectives, published by Routledge, will appear later in 2014. She was until recently a Commissioner for the South African Commission on Gender Equality. Email: [email protected]