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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Women, 'Tradition' and Reconstruction in South Africa |
Author: | Walker, Cherryl |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | Review of African Political Economy |
Volume: | 21 |
Issue: | 61 |
Period: | September |
Pages: | 347-358 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | African National Congress (South Africa) women traditions Women's Issues Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Politics and Government Development and Technology Economics and Trade Equality and Liberation Cultural Roles nationalism Ethnic and Race Relations Education and Training Sex Roles |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03056249408704064 |
Abstract: | This article discusses the tension between the ANC's commitment to gender equality and its engagement within the new government of South Africa with 'the politics of traditionalism'. These politics have been most evident in the struggle to out-manoeuvre the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), while convincing it to participate in the elections, a struggle in which the Zulu king has been the preeminent (but not the only) representative of the resurgent traditionalism that the ANC has been attempting to defuse and co-opt. The 'tradition' being negotiated is fundamentally patriarchal, and the author argues that the two goals - gender equality and accommodating 'tradition' - are ultimately imcompatible. Further, given the limitations on the way in which gender equality is perceived within the ANC, as well as the absence of a politically powerful mass women's movement on the ground, it is likely that, in seeking to manage this incompatibility, the ANC-led government will compromise or delay its commitment to gender equality. This outcome is particularly likely in respect of the land reform programme. Bibliogr., sum. |