Institutional Dilemmas: Representation Versus Mobilization in the South African Gender Commission

Feminist Studies

Volumn 29, Issue 3, 2003, Pages

  Seidman, Gay W ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 1542503708     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (31)

1. Maxine Molyneux, "Mobilization without Emancipation? Women's Interests, the State, and Revolution in Nicaragua," Feminist Studies 11 (Summer 1985): 227-54; Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983).
2. Maxine Molyneux, "Mobilization without Emancipation? Women's Interests, the State, and Revolution in Nicaragua," Feminist Studies 11 (Summer 1985): 227-54; Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983).
3. Shireen Hassim and Amanda Gouws, "Redefining the Public Space: Women's Organizations, Gender Consciousness, and Civil Society in South Africa," Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies 25 (November 1998): 53-76; Sonya Alvarez, "Latin American Feminisms 'Go Global': Trends of the 1990s and Challenges for the New Millenium," and Veronica Schild, "New Subjects of Rights? Women's Movements and the Construction of Citizenship in the 'New Democracies,'" in Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Revisioning Latin American Social Movements, ed. Sonia E. Alvarez, Evelina Dagnino, and Arturo Escobar (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), 293-324, 93-117.
4. Shireen Hassim and Amanda Gouws, "Redefining the Public Space: Women's Organizations, Gender Consciousness, and Civil Society in South Africa," Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies 25 (November 1998): 53-76; Sonya Alvarez, "Latin American Feminisms 'Go Global': Trends of the 1990s and Challenges for the New Millenium," and Veronica Schild, "New Subjects of Rights? Women's Movements and the Construction of Citizenship in the 'New Democracies,'" in Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Revisioning Latin American Social Movements, ed. Sonia E. Alvarez, Evelina Dagnino, and Arturo Escobar (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), 293-324, 93-117.
5. Shireen Hassim and Amanda Gouws, "Redefining the Public Space: Women's Organizations, Gender Consciousness, and Civil Society in South Africa," Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies 25 (November 1998): 53-76; Sonya Alvarez, "Latin American Feminisms 'Go Global': Trends of the 1990s and Challenges for the New Millenium," and Veronica Schild, "New Subjects of Rights? Women's Movements and the Construction of Citizenship in the 'New Democracies,'" in Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Revisioning Latin American Social Movements, ed. Sonia E. Alvarez, Evelina Dagnino, and Arturo Escobar (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), 293-324, 93-117.
6. Rosemary Pringle and Sophie Watson, "'Women's Interests' and the Post-Structuralist State," in De-Stabilizing Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debate, ed. Michele Barrett and Anne Phillips (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992),53-73.
7. Moira Gatens, "Institutions, Embodiment, and Sexual Difference," in Gender and Institutions: Welfare, Work, and Citizenship, ed. Moira Gatens and Alison McKinnon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 1-15; Dorothy Stetson and Amy Mazur, eds., Comparative State Feminism (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1995).
8. Moira Gatens, "Institutions, Embodiment, and Sexual Difference," in Gender and Institutions: Welfare, Work, and Citizenship, ed. Moira Gatens and Alison McKinnon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 1-15; Dorothy Stetson and Amy Mazur, eds., Comparative State Feminism (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1995).
9. Maxine Molyneux, "State, Gender, and Institutional Change: The Federacion de Mujeres Cubanas," in Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America, ed. Elizabeth Dore and Maxine Molyneux (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 291-321; Kathleen Staudt, Policy, Politics, and Gender: Women Gaining Ground (West Hartford, Conn.: Kumarian Press, 1998); Fiona Macaulay, "Getting Gender on the Policy Agenda: A Study of a Brazilian Feminist Lobby Group," in Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America, 346-67.
10. Maxine Molyneux, "State, Gender, and Institutional Change: The Federacion de Mujeres Cubanas," in Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America, ed. Elizabeth Dore and Maxine Molyneux (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 291-321; Kathleen Staudt, Policy, Politics, and Gender: Women Gaining Ground (West Hartford, Conn.: Kumarian Press, 1998); Fiona Macaulay, "Getting Gender on the Policy Agenda: A Study of a Brazilian Feminist Lobby Group," in Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America, 346-67.
11. Maxine Molyneux, "State, Gender, and Institutional Change: The Federacion de Mujeres Cubanas," in Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America, ed. Elizabeth Dore and Maxine Molyneux (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000), 291-321; Kathleen Staudt, Policy, Politics, and Gender: Women Gaining Ground (West Hartford, Conn.: Kumarian Press, 1998); Fiona Macaulay, "Getting Gender on the Policy Agenda: A Study of a Brazilian Feminist Lobby Group," in Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America, 346-67.
12. Shireen Hassim, "Identities, Interests, and Constituencies: The Politics of the Women's Movement in South Africa, 1980-1999" (Ph.D. diss., York University, 2002); Temma Kaplan, Crazy for Democracy: Women in Grassroots Movements (New York: Routledge, 1997); Gay W. Seidman, "Gendered Citizenship: South Africa's Democratic Transition and the Construction of a Gendered State," Gender & Society 13 (June 1999): 287-307.
13. Shireen Hassim, "Identities, Interests, and Constituencies: The Politics of the Women's Movement in South Africa, 1980-1999" (Ph.D. diss., York University, 2002); Temma Kaplan, Crazy for Democracy: Women in Grassroots Movements (New York: Routledge, 1997); Gay W. Seidman, "Gendered Citizenship: South Africa's Democratic Transition and the Construction of a Gendered State," Gender & Society 13 (June 1999): 287-307.
14. Shireen Hassim, "Identities, Interests, and Constituencies: The Politics of the Women's Movement in South Africa, 1980-1999" (Ph.D. diss., York University, 2002); Temma Kaplan, Crazy for Democracy: Women in Grassroots Movements (New York: Routledge, 1997); Gay W. Seidman, "Gendered Citizenship: South Africa's Democratic Transition and the Construction of a Gendered State," Gender & Society 13 (June 1999): 287-307.
15. Seidman, "Gendered Citizenship."
16. Commission on Gender Equality (CGE), Mission Statement, 1997.
17. Joyce Piliso-Seroke, interview by author, June 1999.
18. Nicole Turner, "Disputes Still Rack Gender Commission: Infighting Has Discredited the Commission as an Agent for Change," The Sunday Independent/Reconstruct, 9 July 2000, 1; interviews by author, 2000.
19. Catherine Albertyn, "Women and Politics: Choices in Structural Mechanisms to Empower Women in a Democratic Government" (paper presented at the workshop on Structural Mechanisms to Empower Women in a Democratic Government, Durban, 4-6 Dec. 1992); Brigitte Mabandla, "Choices for South African Women," Agenda, no. 20 (1994): 22-29.
20. Catherine Albertyn, "Women and Politics: Choices in Structural Mechanisms to Empower Women in a Democratic Government" (paper presented at the workshop on Structural Mechanisms to Empower Women in a Democratic Government, Durban, 4-6 Dec. 1992); Brigitte Mabandla, "Choices for South African Women," Agenda, no. 20 (1994): 22-29.
21. Virginia Sapiro, "When Are Interests Interesting? The Problem of Political Representation of Women," in Feminism and Politics, ed. Anne Philips (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 161-92.
22. M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Introduction: Genealogies, Legacies, Movements," in Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures, ed. M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty (London: Routledge, 1997), xxxix; also see Gay Seidman, "'Strategic' Challenges to Gender Inequality: The South African Gender Commission," Ethnography 2 (June 2001): 219-41.
23. M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Introduction: Genealogies, Legacies, Movements," in Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures, ed. M. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Talpade Mohanty (London: Routledge, 1997), xxxix; also see Gay Seidman, "'Strategic' Challenges to Gender Inequality: The South African Gender Commission," Ethnography 2 (June 2001): 219-41.
24. There are, of course, some exceptions. In 1998, the complaints of a young man who had been raped in prison prompted commission efforts to get legislative wording changed, to make male as well as female rape a legal offense.
25. Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff, "Alien-Nation, Zombies, Immigrants, and Millenial Capitalism," and also "Cultural Policing in Postcolonial South Africa" (both in working papers 9901, American Bar Foundation, 1999).
26. Jean Comaroff and John Comaroff, "Alien-Nation, Zombies, Immigrants, and Millenial Capitalism," and also "Cultural Policing in Postcolonial South Africa" (both in working papers 9901, American Bar Foundation, 1999).
27. Interviews with author, 1999.
28. CGE Mission Statement; for more on this position, see Thenjiwe Mtintso's article in this issue.
29. The racial tensions that emerged during the sex work debate threatened to make visible the racial undertones that often infuse debates about the definition of feminism, like all else, in South Africa. Although commissioners and staff members-who are nearly all black-rejected any racial distinction between "white" and "black" feminisms, some black commissioners insisted that if the commission's public profile became too "white," opponents could easily dismiss gender equality as a form of cultural imperialism. Similarly, some white commissioners and staff members expressed concern that feminism should be defined in a way that would make it central to South Africa's "non-racial" democratic project, rather than separated out. See Seidman, "'Strategic' Challenges."
30. In mid-2000, almost two years after decriminalization was discussed in a commission plenary, South Africa's Law Commission (a body charged with revisiting existing legislation, to renew and reform South Africa's legal framework) proposed to consider decriminalizing sex work; but although several women's NGOs and a former commissioner were actively involved in Law Commission discussions, the Gender Commission itself remained silent.
31. Turner; interviews with author, 2000.