Feminist Knowledge | Review Essay: GWS in South Africa

Mapping the Institutional Field

The field of women's and gender studies in South African can be seen to have been launched in the early 1980s with work on women and gender being published in journals like Speak and Agenda, as well as in isolated courses offered by academics in different departments at South African universities. Prior to this, individuals and groupings, with varying kinds of connections to universities, had initiated research and commentary in piecemeal and uncoordinated ways. It can easily be assumed that the eighties ushered in South African gender-related work, but important pioneering work was started a decade before. Although this work was not centralised or formalised, the paradigms, groupings and clusters that were formed then played a crucial role in institutionalising and consolidating projects and networks from the eighties.

The inauguration of women's and gender studies in South Africa is not very different from its establishment elsewhere on the continent. A range of African gender researchers (see Biola Odejide and Ifeoma Isiugo-Abanihe, 1999, Charmaine Pereira, 1996, Paul Zeleza, 1997 and Amina Mama, 1996), have noted that the start of women's and gender studies in Africa differs from its origins in the west. With second-wave feminism there, a strong tradition of feminist activism, originating in independent women's organisations, played a pivotal role in galvanising women's and gender studies courses. In Africa, however, women and gender studies as a field has been significantly driven by western expertise and/or publications, by donor funding and by state initiatives. This does not mean that there have been no strong women's movements in Africa. But these were not the main forces behind the institutionalising of gender studies, with the financial support, conceptual apparatuses and theoretical models for African gender studies being driven from the west and being considerably shaped by agendas that had evolved elsewhere.

South African trends also differ from those elsewhere on the continent in important ways. The main reasons for this are the country's history of seclusion resulting from apartheid, the weak links between South African and other African intellectuals, the isolation of South African gender scholars from long-established networks on the continent like CODESRIA, WORDOC and AAWORD, and historically determined connections between cultural and academic traditions in South Africa and those in the west, in particular Britain and North America. South Africa's weak cultural and political links with the rest of Africa, coupled with a tradition of scholarship and academia for many years shaped by British, Western European and American models, have significantly anchored local gender research and scholarship in centres and traditions abroad. South African gender research is also unique in having been dominated by the writing and research of local white women researchers and academics, since all white South Africans - irrespective of their political affiliation - benefited from their educational privileges under apartheid. The above circumstances have enormously affected the content and politics of South African gender research, publishing trends, the circulation of knowledge, and the kinds of texts and approaches often used in gender research and teaching in the country.

Although many South African trends have been very different from others in Africa, a characteristic that makes dominant South African discourses of gender rights (discourses that affect research and teaching) very similar to patterns elsewhere in Africa is an inclination towards functionalist and technocratic developmentalism. Since 1994, gender awareness has been prioritised within post-apartheid agendas for democratisation and nation-building. Gender awareness in this context has been underpinned by notions of efficient and good governance and cohesive nation-building. It has often meant focusing on technocratic efficiency, rather than a substantive commitment to structural change or institutional transformation. For example, the goal of addressing the iniquitous situation of women in politics is often met by increasing the number of women parliamentarians, rather than by confronting the male-centred institutional culture of parliament.

The trend in state-driven and institutionalised gender advocacy, reflected in affirmative action and ameliorative policy-making, has been towards quantitative changes that involve increasing women's visibility in formerly male-dominated preserves. This trend takes precedence over more challenging objectives, such as those focusing on qualitative changes to male-centred institutional cultures, masculinist working environments or patriarchal values. Related to this is the fact that the most visible and high-profile statements about gender have tended to come from the top-down - for example, through state policy or parliamentary committees, rather than from the bottom up, for example, through civic society and independent women's movements. This has shaped a specific climate around what gender equity entails and who should drive it.

Bureaucratic and prescriptive approaches to gender justice can powerfully affect gender research and education. For example, they can influence students' perceptions, shape the orientation of course work and programmes, establish one-sided standards about what successful gender teaching and research is all about and create restrictive expectations about "effective" gender training and research for the institutions and mechanisms on which educators and researchers rely.

However, individual courses and researchers in South Africa have always worked independently of managerial, top-down or technocratic influences. Many researchers, teachers, trainers and groupings, have - irrespective of a broader climate - been committed to progressive and substantive gender analysis and advocacy. An example here is the University of South Africa's (UNISA) Centre for Women's Studies, now known as the Institute for Gender Studies. Founded in 1985, the Centre was shaped by the commitment of a small group and sought to strengthen the political struggles of South African women by working with community projects, offering a seminar programme open to the general public and producing a topical newsletter.

Another example is an initiative established at the University of the Western Cape, where the first Women's and Gender Studies Programme in the province was launched in 1995. The programme originated in a Gender Equity Unit that monitored and worked towards gender justice for staff and students. Initially offering a resource centre staffed by a senior academic and an administrator, it provided a supportive research and working environment for many students and academics. The unit evolved largely in reaction to, rather than under the guidance of, the dominant mood of national consolidation and reconciliatory democratization that started in the early 1990s. It contested ways in which anti-apartheid struggles had relegated women's personal and psychological needs to second place within the national liberation struggle. The unit was concerned with, for example, the high incidence of rape among women students. With the launch of the Women and Gender studies programme on the basis of the work of the Gender Equity Unit, teaching and student consciousness were powerfully shaped by the struggles and commitment generated through the Gender Equity Unit's work.

The growth of a dynamic and independent ethos for women's and gender studies has also been a feature of other South African universities. At each of these, the impetus has come from the dedication, determination and political energy of individuals, although particular dynamics at stronger sites have led to important infrastructural support, staffing and financial assistance. At the University of Cape Town, for example, Mamphele Ramphele, in her position as university Vice-Chancellor, secured major funding from Carnegie and the Ford Foundation to start the African Gender Institute. This marked a breakthrough for South African gender initiatives. The institute was launched in 1996 on the basis of a strongly Pan-African vision, and, from its inception, sought to build capacity and networks among all women gender researchers on the continent. The continental focus of the institute was illustrated in its Associates Programme, which offered opportunities for women gender scholars from all over Africa to undertake research of their choice for three months at UCT. Because of its continental orientation, the institute pursued directions that were significantly different from the national or regional emphases of other gender centres or programmes in the country.

At present, South African universities boast a total of four gender studies centres or units: the University of South Africa's Institute for Gender Studies, the University of Pretoria's Centre for Gender Studies, the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town and the University of Venda's Centre for Gender Studies. In addition to these, the University of the Transkei, the University of Natal, the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of the Western Cape offer undergraduate and/or postgraduate programmes in gender studies. Since these may be long-established and offer relatively substantial resources in terms of course offerings, staffing and infrastructure, they operate in similar ways to many of the existing centres or institutes. UWC's Women and Gender Studies Programme, for example, has three full-time staff members: a director, a lecturer and an administrator.

Since South Africa has a total of over twenty universities, the number of gender studies centres or units is not an automatic indication of the triumphs of the field. Many who teach gender studies continue to battle with obstacles that have long impeded the work of gender educators worldwide. These include large teaching loads (with teaching in gender courses often being added to teaching in other departments), the marginalization or limited recognition of gender-related work within patriarchal institutions, pressure to mainstream into other departments where there is little evidence that these are committed to addressing gender across the board, combining teaching and administrative duties with ideological battles and pressures to address women students' and staff needs (for example regarding harassment or gender discrimination) for gender justice on campus.