The Private and the public

Abstract

fold. Firstly to establish the respondents perceptions regarding gender identity and secondly, how they perceived and lived the relationship between social change and personal change within the context of personal interactions and within political organisations. This study has two methodological limitations. Firstly the topic under investigation does not easily lend itself to quantification consciousness and value-systems are not easily measurable. Secondly, limitation relates to the sample of respondents chosen. At the time of the study all respondents were politically active within the terrain of white politics in Johannesburg. Activists working within that sector faced particular political and social conditions which differed substantially from those activists engaged in other areas of struggle e.g. in townships, factories and rural areas. The expectation of organisational practice and consciousness however, is as important despite the differing conditions. The interviews covered the following areas: The social and economic crisis in South Africa, feminism developing a working definition, political organisation and feminism and finally, the personal and the political. To locate the study of women and feminism in the context of broader political and social concerns the interviewees were asked about their understanding of the nature of the The study was conducted with political activists, both men and