ASSESSING THE STATE OF THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

Publication gives an insight into the women's movement in South Africa, history, challenges, gains and current status of the movement.The roots of the women’s movement in South Africa are closely tied to the struggle for liberation, the labor movement, and student activism. Amid the fight for independence, it was important for gender equality issues to find their voice, and political party women’s leagues facilitated this. Post-independence, however, as many prominent feminists who had pushed this agenda were absorbed into political positions, this significantly weakened the movement. The movement, however, did achieve many successes in the legal and policy framework for gender equality, particu larly in the constitution, but this is yet to reflect in the lived realities of women and girls fully. In its current state, the movement was described as being sectorized and stratified.