The Study On Status Change Of African Women In South Africa

With the development of African countries,social issues attract more scholars'attention,which the issue of women is one of them.Women play pivotal roles in multiple ways in the survival and development of African societies,both in the national liberation movement and in the construction of new country.It is urgent to improve women's status in Africa.Thus gender was in the spotlight at the 24^thSession of the African Union Heads of States'Summit held in Addis Ababa,Ethiopia,which focused on the“Year of Women's Empowerment and Development towards Africa's Agenda 2063”.Many women's problems today can also be traced back to the history.In other words,the problems of women and gender in daily life will be difficult to solve if there is no clear understanding of women's history.If women's experiences and impact in history are ignored,the development of African countries could not be assessed properly.As South Africa is the country with longest history of apartheid and best-equipped system of racial segregation in Africa,there are multiple factors of marginalization on African women in South Africa,thus their experiences is most typical among all the women in African continent.African women in South Africa have the double identities as women and African,suffering from colonization,racism and sexism in history,which make them remain at the bottom of the social status.Besides the patriarchy,African women have to be under the oppression of the apartheid system with African men.As a result,national liberation is more important than women's liberation and national consciousness is higher than female consciousness,which is an important similarity among most African countries.Women's involvement in politics was subordinated to the political imperatives and agendas of men with the result that women's issues were neglected,so women's consciousness/ego was restrained.But women's participation in the national liberation movement has helped women accumulate rich political experiences and obtained many opportunities.During the transformation period of the country in 1990s,under the influence of the wave of global feminist movement and the guidance of elite African women,as well as learning from the lessons of women's marginalization even after the national liberation of other countries in Africa,African women united all the women in South Africa beyond the race boundary to struggle with the oppression of patriarchy and racism,which has changed the status of South African women as a whole.Their movements and achievement could be a good paradigm for women in other African countries.Public Sphere is the place for public negotiation,and its mechanism provides various spaces for public opinions,which could supervise or restrain political powers.Under the impact of traditional patriarchy and colonization,African women had long been excluded from the public sphere,especially from the public authority in South Africa.They were in subordinate status in public sphere.While it's in the public sphere that the gendered policies and laws are made.Women's rights will be ignored if women have no discourse power in public sphere.To obtain gender equality,the first fortress to conquer by African women is to have their own discourse power in public sphere.By developing and spreading women's opinions in public sphere,women could further influence the gendered policy-making.Women have made great advancement in all sectors of the society—politics,economy,education,law,media,and many more after apartheid,and women have come incredibly far in politics in particular.Therefore this dissertation focuses on the social status change of African women in South Africa,their experiences and lessons in public sphere in particular,which is expected to give some references to global women's development,especially to women in the third world countries.Besides Introduction and Conclusion,the dissertation includes five chapters.Chapter One explores different theories of women studies.By discussing the construction of women's public sphere,this chapter also illustrates the reason of analyzing African women's development from public sphere perspective.Chapter Two focuses on the change of African women's legal status.In traditional South African legal systems,African women had no property right,child custody and marital autonomy.Their subordination transferred from the pre-marital patriarchal family to the authority of the husband through the exchange of ilobolo in Zulu,or“bride wealth”.After the transition to democracy,because the African women united all races'women to take action to ensure the principle of gender equality in the constitution,the gender mechanism is taken into the democratic process by the government.Chapter Three analyzes the political status change of African women in South Africa.During the apartheid,African women had no decision power on public affairs.They took part in women's organizations or took demonstrations and assemblies against the white-minority government.Till to 1994,they have the opportunities to enter into the administrative organizations and to achieve their interests through participation in political decision-making and other ways.Chapter Four examines African women's development in education.Access to education is one of the most effective ways for women getting into the public sphere.The control of African people's education in South Africa transferred from the hand of missionaries to the white-minority government's.The government expanded the women's basic education to some extent in order to control African people during the apartheid.But compared with other races,especially the white race,African women's education was far behind on curricula,fund,teaching facilities and faculty.After apartheid,African women's education opportunities and quality have been improved.But because of gender norms,violence,teenage pregnancy and HIV and AIDS,their education still faces severe challenges.Chapter Five investigates African women's development in cultural domain,and take the development of South African women's soccer as the example to explore African women's process in sports domain from marginalization to active participation and finally becoming popular.Although women have made great achievements in public sphere and the gender discrimination has been eliminated in various laws and policies,but this does not automatically improve women's status in real social life,especially in private sphere.African women in the new South Africa still face the challenges of unemployment,poverty,HIV/AIDS,gendered violence,etc.The rape case of Jacob Zuma in 2006also reflects the deep-rooted gender bias in South Africa's society.The real emancipation of South African women still has a long way to go.