The Lack of a Fully Intersectional Approach to Gender-Based Violence in South Africa

Abstract

Gender-based violence is an issue of major concern in South Africa and is a result of an intersectionality of oppressors. A culture of violence, firmly established by racist and classist historical institutions, remains prominent. In addition, the culture outwardly focuses on tensions of race and class, rather than the oppression of gender, even though gender-based violence is necessarily relies upon the male domination and female subordination. Historical female oppression and patriarchal cultural patterns existed before the introduction of white rule. This phenomenon of South African culture particularly focusing on race and class as oppressors that contribute to gender-based violence, instead of patriarchal norms, can be observed through two major frameworks: discourses of rape and the greater rape culture and inconsistencies between laws, acts, and the Constitution of the South African government as compared to public consciousness of gender. Including an intersectional approach in South African culture that emphasizes oppressive gender structures in discussions of gender-based violence that also incorporates the ways in which race and class are also influences of such violence, must be considered if gender-based violence is to substantially decrease.

Insights on Engaging Men and Boys in Creating a More Gender Equal Future in Canada

“…Findings from this Canadian study support much of what is known internationally on engaging men and boys in gender equality work and suggest that Canadian men have similar perspectives to those in other geographical contexts (Alcalde, 2014;Casey, 2010;Coulter, 2003;Messner et al, 2015;Peretz, 2017;Piccigallo et al, 2012). The strongest finding, the need to meet men where they are at, reinforces the priority for work in Canada to evolve to include new and more relatable narratives and approaches that invite men in and keep them engaged and mobilized to contribute actively to this work.…”

“…Creating space to examine intersectional perspectives that influence men's experiences with power, privilege, and oppression is needed in what has traditionally been a White, heteronormative, and Western-centric approach in Canada. In the scholarship, many articles have discussed the importance of working with diverse men (Casey et al, 2016;Peacock & Barker, 2014), yet it remains an understudied area (Alcalde, 2014;Casey et al, 2016;Hurtado & Sinha, 2008;Jewkes et al, 2015;Peretz, 2017). Applying intersectionality to engagement approaches is strongly supported in the literature as a way to increase diverse men's engagement and enhance program effectiveness (Casey et al, 2016;Dworkin et al, 2015;Flood, 2019;Messner et al, 2015;Peacock & Barker, 2014;Peretz, 2017).…”

“…In our study, Indigenous and racialized participants discuss how difficult it is for men in their communities to examine men's power and privilege when they, themselves, face oppression and racialized violence. Scholars have problematized generalizing men's privilege in engagement approaches since diverse men experience oppression and disempowerment along other intersecting social locations (Alcalde, 2014). Further, research suggests that connecting gender inequality to racial or other types of inequality is an important pathway to engagement and a meaningful way to build empathy among men toward women and other marginalized groups (Alcalde, 2014;Dworkin & Barker, 2019;Peretz, 2017).…”

“…How to engage men and boys involves understanding what gets men to "come to the table" in the first place-and how to keep them there. Ally research has established that men get involved in this work when they connect their own personal experience with violence/oppression (Alcalde, 2014;Peretz, 2017) or when they receive a disclosure about violence or have knowledge/experience of gender-based violence involving friends and family (Casey & Smith, 2010;Peretz, 2017). Other men get engaged when they receive encouragement from a key relationship (i.e., a peer, mentor, wife, or mother encouraged them) (Flood & Howson, 2015) or become a parent/father (Barker et al, 2021;Flood, 2019).…”

South Africa's gender-based violence: an exploration of a single sided account

“…On the contrary, male supremacy advocates the use of violence to preserve the dominance of men over women. Gender oppression arose in traditional South African communities in response to the recognition of men as owners and those in positions of authority [25]. In societies where women are seen as less valuable than men or as men's property, men experience less remorse about harming women and believe that their own pleasure is more essential than that of women.…”