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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | 'Parliament is Another Terrain of Struggle': Women, Men and Politics in South Africa |
Author: | Geisler, Gisela |
Year: | 2000 |
Periodical: | Journal of Modern African Studies |
Volume: | 38 |
Issue: | 4 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 605-630 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | parliamentary representation women politics Women's Issues Ethnic and Race Relations Politics and Government |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/161511 |
Abstract: | South African women's success in moving from active participation in the liberation struggle to active participation in government has been exceptional on a world scale. The South African experience with integrating women into decisionmaking bodies can be attributed to a number of factors, in particular the fact that the majority of women who entered parliament on an ANC ticket came from a long history of political struggle against the apartheid system. They came as part and with the backing of the majority party that, in the climate of the end of the UN Decade of Women, had adopted a gender policy and had set out to transform parliament. The article examines what might be called the 'gender project' in South Africa's parliament. It shows that the success has come with the price of a women's movement that has lost its strong leaders to government, and women politicians who lack the support of a strong women's movement. Thus, in the moment of greatest victory, South African women lack the mass movement that propelled them to success, suggesting that the struggle is not done with yet. Bibliogr., notes, sum. |