Women's Rights in Democratizing States: Just Debate and Gender Justice in the Public Sphere Hardcover by Denise M. Walsh

Author:Denise M. Walsh
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Democratization, Women’s rights, Women – Political activity, New democracies
ISBN: 9781107001916
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2010-11-14T18:30:00+00:00

Cambridge Books Online

http://ebooks.cambridge.org/

Women’s Rights in Democratizing States

Just Debate and Gender Justice in the Public Sphere

Denise M. Walsh

Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511782220

Online ISBN: 9780511782220

Hardback ISBN: 9781107001916

Chapter

7 - Just Debate Declines: Consolidation in South Africa pp. 185-216

Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511782220.007

Cambridge University Press

7

Just Debate Declines

Consolidation in South Africa

“Instead of empowerment, we have a sophisticated process of disempower-

ment.”

Vivienne Taylor, CGE Commissioner, 1999

“An unthinking, uncritical, kowtowing party-line toeing is fatal to a vibrant

democracy.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 2004

Introduction

Feminists have widely celebrated South African successes. In 1994, more

than 19 million South Africans went to the ballot box and ended an

apartheid regime that also was deeply conservative on women’s rights. 1

The Government of National Unity , which was committed to non-racism

and non-sexism, took its place. That new government brought 111

diverse women into parliament. A core group of talented women MPs

working with an array of women’s organizations in civil society helped

pass a remarkable series of laws that included a gender equality clause

in the fi nal constitution, the right to abortion, domestic violence legis-

lation, affi rmative action programs that targeted black women, a new

1 No gender gap in voting behavior was reported for the fi rst three nonracial elections

discussed in this book (Gouws 2004 ). I am not aware of any research disconfi rming

that pattern for the 2009 election. Women registered in larger numbers than men for the

1999, 2004, and 2009 elections (Gouws 2004 ; Kotze 2009 ; Lowe Morna et al. 2009 ).

No data on the number of women who voted in comparison to men is available for these

elections.

185

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186

Just Debate in Democratizing States

maintenance act, and customary marriage reform. State support for gen-

der justice on the scale that occurred in South Africa is quite rare in

democratizing states. Instead, outcomes tend to be moderate as in Latin

America, or limited as in Central and Eastern Europe. Although South

Africa was an exception to this trend, its exceptionalism did not last. At

the beginning of the twenty-fi rst century these advances stopped. Why?

As discussed in Chapter 3 , gender scholars have offered a number of

explanations for this outcome. Scholars of South African gender politics

point to weaknesses among women’s organizing as well as problems with

the electoral system. They have cited a lack of coordination among wom-

en’s groups in civil society and tense relations between women in parlia-

ment and civil society. They have criticized the women’s movement for

focusing on the state while neglecting the private sphere (Albertyn 2003 ;

Britton 2005 ; Hassim 2006 ). Scholars have also noted that opponents

co-opted the rights talk of the women’s movement (Gouws 2005 ; Hassim

2006 ; Manicom 2005 ). Pointing to the electoral system, they note that

the proportional representation system and quota it facilitates limit the

accountability of MPs to their constituents, enable political parties to

demote outspoken women leaders, and give parties control over candi-

date selection. In South Africa, this enabled political parties to place pro-

fessional women in parliament who were willing to tow the party line

(Britton 2005 ; Hassim 2006 ). In a similar

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