Strengthening Gender and Women’s Studies in South Africa [1]
Organized and hosted by the African Gender Institute,
18-20th September 2002
This national workshop ‘Strengthening Gender and Women’s Studies in South Africa was organised by the African Gender Institute, to bring the community of gender and women’s studies (GWS) scholars in South Africa together to critically reflect on the emergence and development of the field since the political transformation of 1994. The intention was to facilitate and encourage South African involvement in the continental networking and intellectual capacity development programme, ‘Strengthening Gender Studies for Africa’s Transformation”.
The 29 participants came from 17 different institutions involved in GWS across South Africa, and in contrast to previous events, the majority were black women.
The first day was devoted to exploring and reflecting on trends in GWS teaching and research in South Africa. Presentations highlighted the broad epistemological and political concerns of the selected centres, notably the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, the University of Western Cape and the University of Natal, Durban’s Department of Education, and the various trajectories of individual scholars now working in the field. Presentations from Womensnet and Agenda drew attention to the power of ICTs and the importance of activist networking and capacity building through training and internships, in the context of rapid change.
Day two focused on the stimulating but challenging context of GWS in South Africa, Presentations from the African Gender Institute, the Centre for Women’s Studies at UNISA and Centre for Gender Studies at University of Venda expressed concern over the general inadequacy of institutional and financial support for the development of GWS. This directly contradicts the political imperatives towards institutional and intellectual transformation, and the policy commitments given by most institutions, as these would indicate more investment rather than less. The high level of reliance on external funding and the exploitation of the goodwill and voluntary labour of a small number of dedicated faculty were identified as a key constraints to the institutionalisation of GWS. The various structural models were identified and compared. The student profile and diverse motivations for pursuing studying, research and careers in the field were positively highlighted.
The final sessions focused on the institutional challenges, and value of engaging in intellectual networking with other African countries with much longer experience in the field. The AGI gave a demonstration of the first ever continental website designed to provide intellectual resources and support the strengthening of GWS teaching and research in African institutions, and invited participants to join the Feminist Studies Network and the GWSAfrica listserve, and to engage actively with continental programme, and join in building Feminist Africa, the first academic gender studies journal designed as a forum to strengthen the intellectual community of GWS scholars on the African continent. Participants focused on the immediate challenges of the national context, and motivated for a national association. A steering committee was convened and mandated to initiate the establishment of a national association.
[1] This initiative was supported by the Ford Foundation, under the broad rubric of the continental programme ‘Strengthening Gender Studies for Africa’s Transformation’.