A Study of Rape in South Africa

Date Presented:

Abstract:

This thesis addresses two major goals: first understanding how local female government representatives and activists against sexual assault in South Africa understand the issues of rape and sexual assault; second clarifying how their perceptions of the issues and of government’s role in addressing them shaped their ideological and practical relationships to each other in the movement to decrease rape in South Africa. To investigate these relationships, I conducted 19 in-depth interviews with both local female councilors and activists against sexual assault in Cape Town. The data revealed that the politicians use a gender-blind lens drawn from nationalist rhetoric and as a result understand rape less as a gender-crisis and more as a result of rural "backwardness" and economic inequalities. The activists, however, from a younger generation, rely on feminist lens to understand the issue. As a result, they see the gender of politicians as less important than their gender philosophy in addressing rape. They see the issue of rape as reflective of the patriarchal system that the government has failed to adequately rectify, particularly when it comes to budgeting funds that would allow the implementation of South Africa's progressive rape legislation. Recognizing this disconnect in ideology and the sense of alienation some activists feel from the government can be useful in understanding why rape in South Africa continues with a startling frequency despite the high level of female political representation and the legacy of a strong women's movement.