In a world where violence against women has become endemic, South Africa is a leading perpetrator. It is estimated that one in five South African women over the age of 18 has suffered physical violence.
The newspapers daily carry stories of violence of all kinds against women - domestic, physical, emotional, economic, sexual, murder.
This situation prompted the UN special rapporteur on violence against women to remark that “despite an arsenal of progressive laws and policies in South Africa to deal with gender-based violence, there has been little implementation, hence impact and gender-based violence continue to be pervasive and at the level of systematic women’s human rights violation”.
She added: “I have heard on many occasions that violence against women is normalised in South Africa. The violence inherited from apartheid still resonates profoundly in today’s South African society dominated by deeply entrenched patriarchal attitudes towards the role of women in society which makes violence against women and children an almost accepted social phenomenon.”
What an indictment!
Sadly, exposure to abusive male power relations and violence is but one element in the subjugation of women in society. There are also outright discrimination and inequality (for example, unequal pay for equal work), denial of personal rights (for example, the right to abortion) and subjugation at domestic level (in situations where women are made to carry the double burden of childcare and home care).
There is a widespread view that the root cause of the problem is “biological”, that the basis of inequality between men and women results from the nature of men. It is further believed (in some quarters) that a “woman’s nature” - her so-called “timidity and submissiveness” - are factors which contribute to her oppression!
But if “biology” is the determining factor responsible for women’s oppression - if the problem lies in the genes of men - how will we ever find a lasting solution?
There is an alternative view, one which locates the primary cause of women’s oppression within the class structure. In terms of this approach, the woman’s struggle for emancipation is part of the anti-capitalist struggle, part of the struggle to build a “caring-and-sharing” society - a society that will eliminate all forms of discrimination and inequality.
If we look at the structure of South African society today, we can see that it is an outcome of our history. For most of the 20th century, the apartheid-based economy forced generations of men into the mining and other sectors through the migratory labour system.
This meant that while the men went off to work for (usually ultra-low, exploitative) wages on the mines and in the factories, the women stayed at home to rear the children and take care of the “domestic economy”. (It was partly this domestic economy that enabled the capitalist mine and factory owners to pay starvation wages.)
This “division of labour” has persisted into the present day because the transition to a constitutional democracy in 1994 did not result in a far-reaching transformation of society.
Over the past 20-odd years, the ANC-led government has introduced many reforms, including those governing women’s rights. However, because of our country’s ongoing domination by “market principles”, only women who can afford to “buy their rights or freedoms” in the capitalist marketplace can be regarded as emancipated.
Thus, it is wealthy and middle-class women (usually individuals rather than whole communities) who have the means to pay for child care and to hire domestic servants, and so, to free themselves of the traditional burdens under which women suffer in this and other countries.
The mass of working-class women continue to suffer under the yoke of class oppression, and continue to be vulnerable to the evils of gender-based violence and subjugation by cultural and traditional norms. They will never be able to “afford” to “buy” their freedoms in the marketplace.
It is clear that unless we make fundamental changes in the nature and structure of society - unless we move away from the market-based capitalist system - women’s oppression will always be with us.
But this does not mean we must postpone the struggle for women’s emancipation. We must, here and now, raise our demands and slogans alongside all our other demands and slogans for an end to class-based oppression. Our immediate demands must include that structural changes be made to the economy that will free women from household drudgery and dependence.
Practical examples include that kitchens, “eating-houses”, laundries, nurseries, kindergartens and so on, be provided on a mass scale throughout the length and breadth of the land. This will free up all women to pursue careers and develop their personal capacities to the fullest, not just the relatively privileged women.
It has been said that 1994 ushered in an era of “personal freedoms but not social freedoms”. What we need are social freedoms of the kind that liberate all, not just those who can afford to buy them.
We need both men and women to join hands in the struggle. The driving vision should be a future - within our lifetime - of a society free of poverty, discrimination and inequality, a society committed to the total liberation of all.
Tyiki is a gender, youth and community activist and member of the South Peninsula Cultural Society.