Global Women’s Rights and African Realities: Examining Discourses of Gender Justice in South Africa

Abstract

abstract The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing provided a space where women worldwide sought to formulate a common plan of action for the advancement of women. While ‘Beijing’s’ establishment of women’s human rights was a pivotal moment in the fight for gender justice, it also delineated the scope of feminist activism both globally and nationally. Within development studies, there is too little attention on how community-based arrangements and experiences can alter, and even disrupt, global agendas. This article endeavours to grasp situated narratives of gender justice and feminist praxis in various spaces in South Africa. To do so, I draw on qualitative research conducted within four civil society organisations to highlight the realities of organisations and activists on the ground. Analysing these oral stories in light of current gender discourses and practices in South Africa, I seek to contribute to a multi-level analysis of African feminist praxis in the contemporary global women’s rights context. As we celebrate the 25 years since the Women’s Conference in Beijing, this article presents an opportunity to (re)assess and (re)frame the struggles, demands, and priorities of Black women and men in South Africa. It also complicates transnational feminist activism by examining young African feminists’ discourses on gender justice and demands to “Africanise” feminism.