The document discusses the oppression of women in South Africa under apartheid and the legal advances made since the end of apartheid. While women now have rights on paper to things like voting, abortion, divorce, equal property rights, and maternity rights, it argues they remain oppressed in practice. Women still face barriers to achieving as much as men, fully participating in society, and attaining positions of real power. They also continue to be economically subjugated and face gender-based violence. The document maintains that inequality is deeply entrenched in capitalist society despite legal reforms.

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2. Women were ‘oppressed’ under
apartheid
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3. “Today women have access to social grants, to housing, education, health
care and free basic services among others. More than ever before,
women enjoy rights and privileges in accordance with our constitution.
We have also made a conscious decision to integrate women's emancipation,
empowerment, equality and poverty eradication in such initiatives as the
Expanded Public Works Programme, the Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) and our anti-poverty
programmes as a whole.
Further, as government, we will continue to work with our social partners
to promote the economic empowerment of women to have easy access
to resources such as finance and ensure that we fast-track skills
development at all levels.”
- Speech delivered by President Thabo Mbeki during Women's
Day celebrations, Galeshewe, Kimberley, 2008
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4. 4
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5. • Since ’94 women have won number of
important rights:
– Right to vote
– Right to abortion
– Right to divorce
– Equal property rights
– Maternity rights
• Women’s position looks good on paper
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6. But it can be
argued:
Women are still
‘oppressed’
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7. From the Daily Dispatch, 30
November 2006
They laughed as she died
WITHIN a short while of this photograph being taken
Nomanelwa Ngwane, aged 50, was dead.
Beaten, battered and bloodied, she died
horrifically after she was accused of being a
witch. She was stoned, stabbed and then
burned by villagers who were once her
neighbours and possibly her friends. On Monday
they became her killers. As she died, they
laughed.
The terrible image of a sad and possibly mentally
deranged woman’s brutal murder was captured
by Max Mxabo, editor of a local community
newspaper, who was travelling along the N2
between Mount Ayliff and Kokstad on Monday
when he saw a crowd near a homestead on the
roadside and stopped to investigate.
This picture has been cropped for the front page to
contain the horror that we show in full, but in
black-and-white, on page three.
Mxabo told the Daily Dispatch: “This woman was
being stoned and assaulted with sharp
instruments and all sorts of things, man it was
hectic. I could not believe my eyes.”
The attackers “struggled among one another in order
to get to the woman, throwing stones and sticks
at her. Wounds were visible on her whole
body.”
The mob kept hitting her head with bush knives.
“They put paraffin all over her body. Her hair was
burning. Some villagers were swearing at her as
if she was the devil.
“They shouted ‘Bulala umthaskathi’ (kill the witch). It
was as if they wanted her to die then and there.
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8. • Legal advances in every important respect
But…
• Women remain second class citizens:
– Unable to achieve as much as men
– Unable to participate to same degree
– Absent from positions of real power
– Economically subjugated
– Face violence based on their gender
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9. • It emerged as a social and political problem
only with development of capitalism
• Before this society was accepted as unequal
by nature
– Everyone had their place
– Believed to be ordained by God
– Inequality in pre-capitalist society seen as natural
– ‘Equality’ was an alien concept
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10. • The ideology of inequality:
–It reflected the low level of
development of forces of production
–Differences between people and
regions appeared to be the result of
personal, geographical and climatic
factors
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11. • Freedom and equality:
– These concepts arose with bourgeois revolution
– The feudal hierarchy became a barrier to capitalist
development
– Capitalist class imposed its freedom on society
– Overthrow of feudal relations was a positive
development
• BUT the new freedom and equality were
restricted
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12. Equality:
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13. Equality
• Everyone is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and
benefit of the law.
• Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms.
To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures
designed to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons,
disadvantaged by unfair discrimination may be taken.
• The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against
anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy,
marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age,
disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.
• No person may unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone
on one or more grounds in terms of subsection (3). National legislation
must be enacted to prevent or prohibit unfair discrimination.
• Discrimination on one or more of the grounds listed in subsection (3) is
unfair unless it is established that the discrimination is fair.
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14. • There is equality on paper but
freedom to own capital means some
are more equal than others
• Freedom to accumulate capital
means the freedom to exploit the
working class
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15. • In capitalist society:
– Everyone is said to be equal before the law
– But this equality presupposes social inequality
between the capitalists and those they exploit
– The unequal relationship between worker and
employer is not the only example of the
contradiction between the bourgeois
commitment to equality and the reality of
capitalist society
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16. • Many inequalities that pre-dated capitalism
were simply extended and reinforced by the
new system of production
• Inequality between men and women was one
example
• Capitalism extended throughout the world
and also introduced new forms of inequality
e.g. between oppressor and oppressed
nations: imperialism
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17. • The entrepreneur’s emphasis on freedom
expresses the drive to remove all obstacles to
capital accumulation
• BUT the greater the freedom for capital
accumulation, the more its principles of
equality are violated in practice
• Thus oppression arises for the first time as a
specific social and political problem
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18. Property
• No one may be deprived of property except in terms
of law of general application, and no law may permit
arbitrary deprivation of property.
• Property may be expropriated only in terms of law of general application ­
– for a public purpose or in the public interest; and
– subject to compensation, the amount of which and the time and manner of payment of which have either been
agreed to by those affected or decided or approved by a court.
• The amount of the compensation and the time and manner of payment must be just and
equitable, reflecting an equitable balance between the public interest and the interests of
those affected, having regard to all relevant circumstances, including ­
– the current use of the property;
– the history of the acquisition and use of the property;
– the market value of the property;
– the extent of direct state investment and subsidy in the acquisition and beneficial capital improvement of the
property; and
– the purpose of the expropriation.
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19. Property
• No one may be deprived of property except in terms of law of general application, and no law
may permit arbitrary deprivation of property.
• Property may be expropriated only in terms of law of general application ­
– for a public purpose or in the public interest; and
– subject to compensation, the amount of which and the time and manner of payment
of which have either been agreed to by those affected or decided or approved by a court.
• The amount of the compensation and the time and manner of payment must be just and
equitable, reflecting an equitable balance between the public interest and the interests of
those affected, having regard to all relevant circumstances, including ­
– the current use of the property;
– the history of the acquisition and use of the property;
– the market value of the property;
– the extent of direct state investment and subsidy in the acquisition and beneficial capital improvement of the property;
and
– the purpose of the expropriation.
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21. How inequality
is justified under
capitalism….
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22. • In its early stages, ongoing inequality was
justified on the grounds that some were
“more able than others”, e.g:
– Men were more capable than women
– Europeans were more intelligent than Africans
• The bourgeoisie thus maintained a formal
commitment to equality while blaming the
oppressed for their inferior position
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23. Gradual reform…
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24. • Time passed
• Class struggle increased
• Ruling class granted
legal reforms correcting
some of the grosser
violations of the
principle of equality
• BUT legal reforms only
show how deep-rooted
oppression really is
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25. • Despite changes in the law, the unequal relationship
between men and women has changed very little
• Is reproduced spontaneously by day to day operation
of capitalist society
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26. • Is not specific to modern capitalist society
• Stretches back to different historical periods
• That women are ‘inferior to men’ seems a
‘fact of life’
• BUT previous forms of domination are
distinct from oppression of women under
capitalism
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