Feminism in South Africa

[2] Specifically, feminism in South Africa gained new life in 1994 when the constitution was being rewritten to cater to a post-apartheid, democratic society.

These progressive women led movements were later labeled one of the first examples of modern South African feminism.

[9] Through the country's transition to multi-racial democracy in the mid-1990s, South African feminism contributed to the process of reconstruction, striving for a non-racist, non-sexist society.

International feminist theory asserts that exclusive dualities between men and women serve as the groundings on which discriminatory laws and practices lie.

Modern South African feminists aim to deconstruct these dualities by politicizing the lives of women and demanding gender equality laws.

Due to the patriarchal structure embedded in South Africa's cultural norms and governing bodies, women have faced adversity in the fight for equality, particularly women of color who, because of the unique racial history of the country, have faced even greater disadvantages due to apartheid.

[12]: 371 In 1933, Leila Wright, wife of Deneys Reitz, was elected as the first female Member of Parliament.

It would later open Advice Offices to provide information concerning their legal rights to non-white South African's affected by that legislation.

The document initially received high praise from feminists in the South Africa, but in later years women criticized the congress for not taking action to rectify the issues outlined in the statement.

[16] This improvement is largely due to mandatory quotas now required by political parties in South Africa to ensure minimum female representation in government positions.

This pay gap is the legacy of generations of gender disparities, and women are making advancements steadily, dominating certain STEM fields such as Biology, Botany & Statistics for decades.

In South Africa, the proportion of unpaid work, also known as parental or adult responsibilities per day is 56.1 for women and 25.9 for men.

[4] After the country's first democratic elections in 1994, many discriminatory statutes in South Africa were scrapped and replaced with the Domestic Violence Act of 1998.

The Minister of Justice introduced the bill to a preliminary committee who refused the draft, which stated marital rape as a crime.

This newly drafted bill was accepted by parliament and passed in 1989 becoming part of South African law.

The reason parliament did not want to initially criminalized marital rape is because it would potentially increase the already high divorce rates in South Africa at the time.

Historians found that when researching the culture of rape in South Africa during this time, it was so common that communities just accepted it as a part of everyday life.

[28] For black South Africans, feminism may often be a highly charged position to take up; it has been seen as a colonial importation, white and middle-class.

Others reject the feminist movement because it is perceived to threaten customary patriarchal practices and male authority in South Africa.