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| Title: | The Dynamics of Gender Politics in the Hostels of Cape Town: Another Legacy of the South African Migrant Labour System |
| Author: | Ramphele, Mamphela |
| Year: | 1989 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
| Volume: | 15 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Period: | April |
| Pages: | 393-414 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | South Africa |
| Subjects: | labour migration workers' housing women Labor and Employment Women's Issues Urbanization and Migration Marital Relations and Nuptiality Cultural Roles migration |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636404 |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the dynamics of gender politics as played out in the challenging environment of supposedly single-sex hostels in the Western Cape, South Africa. In particular, it focuses on how these dynamics are shaped by the exploitative system of racial discrimination, economic deprivation and the manipulation of 'tradition' as a resource for the social control of women by men. After a short description of hostel accommodation and its inhabitants, the paper examines the interaction of men and women both as individuals and as groups. It makes a distinction between single and married women, because of the different ways in which men relate to them and also the different strategies they adopt to cope with male dominance. The paper also examines how women interact among themselves given their set gender roles, and finally, how men interact with men in this setting. Specific case studies are used to show how some individuals deal with particular problems or conflicts. The paper concludes that the power of tradition is such that it constitutes an important fourth factor, together with race, class and gender, in shaping unequal social relations between men and women. Notes, ref., sum. |
