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What Are Women’s Rights Good For? Contesting and Negotiating Gender Cultures in Southern Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2015

Judith Van Allen
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Abstract:

Currently, feminist activists are engaged in problematizing and reframing “rights” claims in southern Africa. This article discusses three cases of such activism, all of which show the limitations but also the potential of using rights claims to transform gender cultures and gain economic and gender justice. These cases involve the successful challenge to the gender discriminatory 1982 Botswana Citizenship Act; the policy shift of Women and Law in Southern Africa from a focus on legal rights advocacy to a synthesis of rights and kinship-based claims; and initiatives by South African gender activists to confront the contradiction between the country’s constitutional guarantees of women’s rights and high levels of gender violence.

Résumé:

A l’heure actuelle les militantes féministes sont engagées dans la problématisation et la reformulation des “droits” des réclamations en Afrique australe. Cet article traite de trois cas d’un tel militantisme, qui tous trois montrent les limites, mais aussi le potentiel de l’utilisation des revendications de droits pour transformer les cultures de genre et acquérir plus de justice économique et d’égalité des sexes. Ces cas comportent en premier lieu la contestation couronnée de succès, de la discrimination à l’égard des femmes de la loi sur la citoyenneté du Botswana de 1982; en deuxième lieu le changement des politiques concernant Femme et Droit en Afrique australe qui se concentraient tout d’abord sur les droits légaux puis ont évolué pour se concentrer sur les réclamations fondées sur la parenté; et en troisième lieu des initiatives des militantes pour l’égalité des sexes qui affrontent la contradiction entre les garanties constitutionnelles du pays sur les droits des femmes et les niveaux toujours croissants de violence contre les femmes.

Keywords

Genderhuman rightskinshipfamilygender-based violenceBotswanaSouth AfricaTRC
Type
ASR FORUM ON WOMEN AND GENDER IN AFRICA: PART 1
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , December 2015 , pp. 97 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2015 

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