Global Women’s Rights and African Realities: Examining Discourses of Gender Justice in South Africa

abstract

The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing provided a space where women worldwide sought to formulate a common plan of action for the advancement of women. While ‘Beijing’s’ establishment of women’s human rights was a pivotal moment in the fight for gender justice, it also delineated the scope of feminist activism both globally and nationally. Within development studies, there is too little attention on how community-based arrangements and experiences can alter, and even disrupt, global agendas. This article endeavours to grasp situated narratives of gender justice and feminist praxis in various spaces in South Africa. To do so, I draw on qualitative research conducted within four civil society organisations to highlight the realities of organisations and activists on the ground. Analysing these oral stories in light of current gender discourses and practices in South Africa, I seek to contribute to a multi-level analysis of African feminist praxis in the contemporary global women’s rights context. As we celebrate the 25 years since the Women’s Conference in Beijing, this article presents an opportunity to (re)assess and (re)frame the struggles, demands, and priorities of Black women and men in South Africa. It also complicates transnational feminist activism by examining young African feminists’ discourses on gender justice and demands to “Africanise” feminism.

keywords:

• gender mainstreaming
• South Africa
• transnational feminism
• African feminism
• Beijing Platform for Action

Notes

1 Both participants have given the author permission to cite their full names in a signed written consent form.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Océane Jasor

   OCÉANE JASOR is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University, Canada. Prior to joining academia, she worked in development agencies broadly concerned with women’s empowerment and gender justice. Her current research investigates present-day feminist movements and discourses in South Africa. Her work was published in Gender, Place & Culture, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, and Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. Email: [email protected]