Simpson, G. (1992). Jack-asses and Jackrollers: Rediscovering gender in understanding violence. Research report written for the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
Graeme Simpson
Research report written for the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, 1992.
Graeme Simpson is a founder and former Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
Introduction
It would appear that the battle to insert a gender-specific concern is never really won. In short, a feminist's work is never done. This is true as much in academic and legal discourses as it is within the wider society. It is with alarming regularity that analysts (particularly men) retrospectively "rediscover" gender as an insightful tool – a useful additive in examining social phenomena – despite its constant and central presence in defining the terms in which power relations are played out in society.
This is especially true of the examination of the social an political violence which has come to permeate South African society in the post-1990 phase. It is almost un-surprising, in spite of the fact tat the vast majority of perpetrators of this violence are men. Yet what this gender bias fails (so effectively) to elicit, is the disguised centrality of gender issues in explaining the form of much of the violence. Not only are women amongst the most prolific victims of the current levels of violence, but it will also be argued below that much of the violence is best understood in terms of the unconstrained masculine identities (and experiences of emasculation) on the part of the male perpetrators. This assertion does not deny the complex interaction of a range of factors in explaining the current levels of violence. There is little doubt that the only credible explanations of this conflict must be multi-causal and must constantly grapple with complex interwoven class-based, political, ethnic, regional and generational identities of those who are involved both as victims and as perpetrators of the violence. It is not at the expense or exclusion of these explanatory tools that this essay is concerned to once again "rediscover" gender-based explanations, but merely as an indispensable addition to the kaleidoscope of explanatory factors.1
This paper cannot properly survey the full spectrum of violence or its explanations in contemporary South Africa. It can at best merely describe a few significant aspects – and will attempt to do no more. However, the significance of this exercise will be its implications for the terms in which solutions are sought for resolving the spiral of conflict. This is a process with which the current rather haphazard negotiation process is primarily concerned. It is a process which is focussed on constitutional, political, social, economic, developmental an quasi-legal solutions. Yet it is a process which, like the developing understanding of complex causation, is almost constantly gender-blind. This is undoubtedly the consequence of our propensity to repeatedly describe the perpetrators of such violence in terms of their political affiliations, their ethnic identities or their class-concerns. We never describe them merely as men – and this indicates the extent to which gender is once again devalued as a self-contained explanatory tool. It needs once again to be "rediscovered" in this context and it is primarily this purpose which lies at the root of this intervention.
This paper will briefly examine the dramatic incidence of domestic violence directed against women in the context of the process of political transition in the post February 1990 era. It will note the particular experiences of black female domestic workers in this context. This essay will also consider women as the primary victims of the war in Natal and as the objects of violence perpetrated by township-based youth gangs. The paper will also briefly consider the gender-based concerns in the violence perpetrated by hostel dwellers in the context of the urban Transvaal townships. In each of these spheres, violence is underpinned by gender specific explanations, yet in the quest for developmental, political and constitutional solutions, this "gendered" perspective is all but ignored. The final task of this essay will be to make suggestions as to some of the resultant inadequacies in those solutions currently being sought.
Contextualising Domestic Violence
The process of transition in South Africa – a whole society experiencing dramatic change – has generated deep-rooted insecurity which, coupled with the hostile stereotypes ingrained by apartheid, has translated into widespread social fear and a pervasive sense of loss of control. In part, this insecurity is intrinsic to a haphazard negotiation process which has demanded the partial dismantling of traditional forms of social regulation under apartheid, without effectively generating alternative consensus-based sources of social authority and regulation.2 However, at an individual level, the sources of frustration and social insecurity are themselves often perceived as being beyond the reach of those subject to them. The political process which generates such uncertainty is enduring and inaccessible to the average "person in the street". Similarly, the experience of a contracting economy with its inevitable consequences of businesses going insolvent and increased joblessness, leaves those affected feeling helpless and unable to effect the change necessary to allay their fears. Even if the sources of these problems were easily identifiable as the government, the captains of commerce and industry, the liberation movements or the trade unions, they would still be inaccessible to the average South African concerned to redress his or her problems.
The absence of accessible targets for this growing social aggression, often results in it being displaced to arenas removed from its immediate source of origin. Most often, we can trace this displaced aggression to the home environment. The expression of frustration and aggression in the domestic arena is easily facilitated by the seclusion of this 'private' realm from the public eye and from public scrutiny. It is within the privacy of this seclusion, that frustrated and emasculated men, symbolically reassert their control within that one realm which (in a highly patriarchal society) they still traditionally hold sway – within heterosexual relationships and within the family. For the women and children who live in it, the homestead thus takes on a deceptive duality: sanctuary, haven and place of security on one hand; and potential prison and/or torture chamber on the other. Understandably within this context, the victims of this displaced aggression are usually those structurally waker members of the society over whom men can most easily reassert their control: women, children and the elderly.
To merely exclude violence of this sort from our definition of political violence in this period of our history, would be to deny the fundamental nature of the power relationships which are being violently played out in this arena of society. Furthermore, it would also belie the pervasive social effect of more narrowly-defined political processes. Indeed, it is argued here that the dramatic increase in violence against women, children and the elderly (as well as in violent crime more generally) in the course of the past two years, is a gruesome barometer of the social and political dislocation of a society in transition, as well as of the 'introversion' of political conflict in South Africa.3
It must be emphasised that the statistics and illustrations which follow are not exhaustive but are merely indicators. They do not themselves prove the trend that has been outlined and all the accuracy-related problems associated with criminological statistics of this sort, such as under reporting, etc., are especially problematic when we consider the issue of violence in the home or of violence against women and children. It is precisely this sort of violence, within marriage or relationships and within the confines of the private arena, that is so frequently deemed to be no more than normative domestic conflict. Neighbours very willingly look away, the police claim they cannot intervene, and the victims are often too vulnerable to the power of their tormentors to take any action themselves. What follows is consequently no more than the tip of the iceberg – and our analysis must be tentative, as it is only based on what we can see and leaves us unable to even speculate on that which remains invisible.
Women as Victims
The National Institute for Crime Prevention and the Rehabilitation of Offenders (NICRO) estimates that only one in 20 rapes are reported in South Africa. On this basis it is estimated that as many as 300 000 women are raped each year.4 Stated slightly differently, this means that there are 63 rapes per 100 000 people in South Africa.5 Despite reports by the South African Police which suggested that the national incidence of rape decreased by 0.67% (137 fewer cases) from 1989 to 1990,6 the Minister himself reported that, in 1990, rape of "young girls" increased by 23% from the 1990 figure.7 The increase in rape statistics for Johannesburg alone (excluding Soweto and Randburg) during this period was 33%.8
If the real extent of rape is often invisible through these sorts of statistics, then even more "normative" forms of domestic violence such as wife battery, are nearly completely hidden from our view. This phenomenon is best indicated by the title of Erin Pizzey's book on the subject: Scream Silently or the Neighbours Will Hear!
At the other end of the scale, however, are even more brutal and particularly public forms of violence against women. A dramatic example is the phenomenon of "witch burning" described by Ritchken.9 He notes that this generally occurs in rural communities and appears to be associated with political and economic conflict which leads to scapegoating of vulnerable or marginalised individuals such as women and the elderly. According to Ritchken, witch burning has been on the increase in rural South Africa since 1985.
More generally, women tend to be the most victimised sector of communities ravaged by war, yet this often takes the forms of sexual violence more brutal than is publicly acknowledged. The following descriptions of women as victims of the 'Natal War', are drawn from the work by Vogelman and Eagle:
During the war the incidence of sexual abuse has risen. There have been several reports of demands for sex (in exchange) for protection, both within the ranks of organisations and as trade offs with the other side or security force personnel. (Personal Account P.M.F.)
The incidence of rape has also increased despite a recognised reluctance on the part of women to report it. (Daily News, 12/06/1990.)
Recently, soldiers of the 32 Battalion have been charged with an attempted rape and several incidences of sexual harassment have occurred. (Sunday Tribune, 12/05/1990.)
Women are regarded as property: D cited a case where a comrade justified a rape by his side because it was done in revenge for a rape committed by the other side.10
Violence against women in South Africa has been described by Eagle and Vogelman as 'endemic'. From this it is clear that violence against women, usually taking the form of sexual violence, is widespread, deeply entrenched and increasingly considered normative rather than deviant. It is arguable that violence against women has in fact become part of the 'culture of violence' in the wider society, in that it has increasingly been subtly socially sanctioned. Sexual violence and harassment of women takes many forms. The dramatic experiences of rape, wife battery and other forms of physical abuse are merely at the most extreme end of this spectrum.
The experience of loss of control which has been discussed, is often particularly stark for white South Africans who are used t exclusive access to political and economic power and who experience this power in the world simply slipping away. In this respect, there is probably no form of domestic violence which is more symbolic of the trends that ave been outlined above, that the ultimate reassertion of control by men over their women and children, through the almost uniquely South African phenomenon of family killings.
Here again, the statistics are misleading, for crime reports do not distinguish between the murder of a spouse or child and the wiping out of a whole family. As a result, the statistics which are available for family killings are probably dramatically deflated. It is reported that 223 people died in family murders from 1986 to 1988, during which period there was approximately one family killing per month.11 Of the 126 reported family killings between 1983 and June 1988, only two involved black families12 and 90% involved Afrikaans-speaking families.13 However, one 1990 report suggests that 13 black families were involved in family murders in the second half of that year alone.14
The latter development is significant in that it suggests that the anxiety and social dissatisfaction felt by black families during this time of massive social changes and civil war is increasingly played out in the form of displaced aggression within the family. This may culminate in a desperate attempt to assert the ultimate control over one's domain – the (male perpetrated) the murder. It is also suggested that the assumptions that this phenomenon was exclusive to white, Afrikaans, lower-middle class families may be misleading – the product of under-scrutinised township subcultures during the apartheid era. This is significant as it is an indicator that the symbolic reassertion of patriarchal power in the context of social insecurity, in all probability cuts across racial boundaries.
Violence Against Domestic Workers
Violence and displaced aggression in the domestic arena, of the sort described above, is also of particular significance where it overlaps with racial conflict or tensions generated by the process of transition. Evidence suggests that 1990, particularly after February 2nd, saw a remarkable increase in violence by white home-owners directed against their black domestic workers. Motsei argues that this violence was particularly symbolic of white South Africans' insecurities in a period of political flux and uncertainty where the "most dangerous enemy" was the "enemy within" – those black South Africans who had easy access to their white oppressors.15
Motsei points to the complex status of black domestic workers within the white families and homesteads that they occupy. Apart from the "triple oppression" which these women experience, she notes that they are also captives within the institution of the "white mansion" – compared by Motsei to the total institutions described by Goffman and the carceral institutions analysed by Foucault.16
She goes on to identify the contradictory duality of the black domestic worker's existence – simultaneously "insiders" within the intimacy of the family and the dwelling, yet fundamentally they remain "outsiders", confined to quarters and separated by their race and positions of servitude. This duality, coupled with the historical lack of legal protection as employees under the Labour Relations Act, placed these women at the cutting edge of abuse in a symbolic power struggle within a changing society. As Motsei puts it:
It is therefore apparent that despite their position as 'insiders' in the private realm of the domestic world of the white families they serve, domestic workers remain 'outsiders' – their exclusion being based on the racial prejudices which they suffer in the South African society. Although they are contractual workers under the common law, domestics are excluded from any real legal protection in South African law. Although they appear to be an integral part of the white household, this is usually at the expense of their role within their own families. For all these reasons, domestic workers can appropriately be described as 'insiders' with 'outsider' status in both the domestic and the legal arenas of South African society.17
Based on interviews, Motsei goes on to document the physical violence, sexual harassment, verbal abuse and unfair dismissals to which domestic workers are exposed (usually at the hands of the white men) as a consequence of this 'dual status'. She concludes that physical violence against domestic workers is on the increase and notes that this is of great concern to officials of the South African Domestic Workers' Union. The Union's education officer specifically identified the country's current uneasy political atmosphere as one of the central reasons for this increase. She was quoted as saying:
Since the start of the unrest in 1984, we've had a terrifying increase in the number of domestics assaulted by their employers. Domestics often bear the brunt of their employer's frustration.18
Motsei describes this aspect of domestic violence as the "best kept secret" in South African society. The sexual harassment and physical and psychological abuse of domestic workers remains well hidden by the privatised and institutionalised nature of domestic work.
A "Gendered" Account of Youth Violence
In looking beyond the confines of the domestic arena, one of the most popular concerns in respect of the current township violence, is the role of the youth. Here too a gendered prism on the issue elucidates a great deal in regard to youth both as victims and as perpetrators of violence.
The devastating psychological effects of township violence on youth and young children has been well documented in various sources. For many of these children, the current wave of township violence, rather than presenting as a new phenomenon, is merely experienced as a contribution of violence that has been experienced over the last decade at least. Yet in its increasingly arbitrary, unpredictable and internally divisive nature, the recent wave of township conflict generates even greater levels of anxiety and insecurity which cannot be psychologically rationalised. This is compounded by the fact that the experience of this violence is seldom isolated, but tends to operate as a source of continuous stress.19
According to the Minister of Police, reports of serious assault of children under 14 years of age increased by close to 55% in 1990 when compared with the previous year.20 Although statistics for South Africa are unavailable, international statistics show that 97% of abusers are men and that 92% of their victims are young girls. There is no reason to doubt that the figures would probably be the same in this country and figures in a demographic study conducted by the Durban Child Welfare Society reflect much the same trend.
Black South African youths are predominant not only as victims, but also as perpetrators of violence in our society. As such they are the most symbolic measure of the enduring extent of frustration experienced within the township community. More than any other sector of society, they have been historically marginalise by apartheid, leaving them as alienated outcasts within their own wider society. Black township youths have historically been excluded from the key sources of power and authority in the society: they have been excluded from the empowering educative process as a result of the Bantu Education system; they have been left politically voiceless through exclusion from any political rights and they have been marginalised from any source of wealth creation and economic power through increased joblessness in a contracting economy. Particularly for young post-adolescent males, this leaves them frustrated, emasculated and generally disempowered. This is not a 'lost generation' as some have described it (as if this group of people independently lost their way) – rather it is a generation of young people who have been actively marginalised and brutalised by their society. It is no surprise that they present as the primary perpetrators as well as victims of violence, both criminal and political.21
The increase in youth violence in the township context has most notable been accompanied by a further increase in violence that is directed against young women by these young marginalised male youths. Mokwena cites one informant:
When you leave your child alone in the home she is not safe. And in the street, she is not safe. And in the school she is not safe. There is nowhere that she can walk and be safe. Girls are afraid somebody in a car will stop them and say "get in." When they walk in the street they are raped by men with guns. Sexual abuse happens so much that some students stop going to school.22
This violence against young women occurs, fundamentally, within the framework of a male dominated society. Men have been taught to define their power in terms of their capacity to effect their will, especially over women, with or without the consent of those involved. This is an integral part of a society which prescribes different gender roles, a society where young males are taught to be assertive and masculine, and women are expected to be subordinate and submissive.
In South Africa racism compounds this dynamic through the creation f powerlessness and impotence which imposes a form of "inferiority complex" upon its victims. Black males of all ages have to deal with their inferior status, often experienced as emasculation, in society and in the workplace where they are treated as "boys". This inferior status contradicts their socialisation and leads to chronic feelings of inferiority. This is also accompanied by deteriorating social and economic circumstances which lead to high unemployment. For many of these men, work is inextricably tied to gender expectations and their experiences of masculinity. Unemployment is thus experienced as a personal, rather than a social failure. A conjunction of the factors mentioned above, leads to a situation where violence is used as a means of increasing self-esteem. Women, as less powerful persons, become the victims of displaced aggression, the victims of a symbolic reassertion of masculinity and control.
In the past two years, in the context of increasing township conflict, the phenomenon of the "jackroll" menace has emerged. This refers to the undisguised use of sexual violence against young women in the township by young armed men. The "Jackrollers" continue to terrorise women in many parts of Reef townships with a seeming impunity. Mokwena cites the case of Isabella, a 17 year old student in Soweto. She says:
I am afraid of the Jackrollers. They are affecting all of us as girls. We are not safe anymore. We can't even walk in the streets without being harassed by hooligans.23
Young women are thus victimised both directly and indirectly. Women have to be ultra cautious about their movement, what they wear and which places they visit. These added restrictions help to further entrench their own sense of inferiority and marginalisation.
Gender, Violence and the Single-sex Hostels
Violence emanating from Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) organised single sex migrant hostels has been central to the escalating war in the townships of the Transvaal in the period since August 1990. The hostels have increasingly become central to the peace process and attempts to resolve the problem through fencing the buildings, thereby containing the migrant population and consolidating its alienation from the township communities, have become a central stumbling block in the negotiation process.
Until recently, however, te gendered perspective on this problem was limited to a rather simplistic notion that the populations of single sex migrant hostels had an inherent propensity to brutal violence, due to a pervasive macho culture coupled to the absence of women and the constraining influence of family life.24 More recently, however, there has been some more attention paid to the specific relationship between patriarchal and ethnic ideologies in the violent mobilisation of hostel dwellers during the period under review. Segal has been innovative in examining the central role of women and the changing locus of control within the hostels.25 She has also pointed to the centrality of women in defining migrant consciousness and in shaping the traditionalist and anti-urban priorities of hostel dwellers confronted with a perceived attack on their dual urban/rural lifestyles and symbolised by the threat of destruction of the hostels.26
The centrality of gender-specific analysis to an understanding of this complex and multi-faceted migrant consciousness is further evidenced by the rhetoric of Chief Buthelezi himself. In response to the bilateral agreement between State President De Klerk and ANC President Nelson Mandela on the matters of fencing the hostels and illegalising the carrying of 'traditional weapons', the IFP leader tiraded against the "emasculation" of the Zulu people and the pending process of "ethnic cleansing." The coupling of ethnic and patriarchal identities is, in Cheryl Walker's view, of great significance to an appropriate gender-specific explanation of hostel based violence during this period.
In a gentle critique of Segal's work, Walker argues that ethnicity is an inherently gendered term as are all cultural practices. She goes on to argue that in examining the role of patriarchy in forging a violent macho culture, it is necessary to look not only at the centrality of women to the actions of men, but at the shaping of gender specific identities of men themselves.27
Conclusions
Violence against women is a pervasive and comprehensive problem which intrudes on the social, sexual and psychological dimensions of most women's lives. For this reason, solutions to the problem must go well beyond a legal process, whether punitive or preventative. Women need to be empowered and this is primarily a social and educative process, rather than one which may conveniently be resolved through legal change.
The pages which precede this are largely descriptive in their attempt to resuscitate a gendered view of social process in the context of socio-political change which is accompanied by high degrees of violence. Whether as victims of criminal youth gangs, of their bosses, or of their husbands within the confines of the privacy of the domestic realm, women remain the primary victims of displaced aggression which manifests itself as a result of dramatic social change. Across all the pre-existing cleavages in this uniquely divided society, men are ironically unified in their shared patriarchal identities. Confronted by change and insecurity, they translate their powerlessness and insecurity into emasculation. In this view, women become the victims of the symbolic reassertion of male power. However, our gendered prism on this process is not merely reduced to the victimology of women – it is rooted in the positive reassertion of the gender identity of men who perpetrate the acts of violence. In Posel's terms, the subtle challenges to men's authority are driven back through the reassertion of patriarchal power.28
However, the search for solutions to the current violence, through a negotiation process largely conducted by grey haired men, barely addresses any of these concerns. It is arguable, that in any event there would be little point. Romanticised notion of protection for victims of violence inherent in a constitutional mechanism or in a Bill of Rights are potentially dangerous in their inclination to substitute legal reform for necessary social change. Yet it is only the latter that can realistically penetrate the veil of socially sanctioned privacy in the domestic arena which shrouds the abuse taking place.
In the specific contexts of the above discussion certain indications are clear. Firstly, short of the complete overhaul of the criminal justice system in its entirety (and arguably even with it), there can be no effective legal protection against domestic violence targeting women. The public/private divide remains a fundamentally inhibiting factor which, short of intrusive policing methods which potentially compromise individual liberties, will continue to sustain the power imbalance that feeds the abuse and which ultimately protects the abuser.
Secondly, the recent incorporation of domestic workers under the Labour Relations Act, although a necessary development, cannot overcome the atomization of this sector of the working class which, combined with their racial and gender identities, makes them prime targets for violent abuse. Such legal solutions do not offer lasting solutions to the institutionalised working conditions which render them susceptible. Just as the roots of domestic violence are traceable to the dynamics and tensions of the wider society, so too must lasting solutions be sought both within and beyond the domestic environment. This conclusion is instructive in respect of legal reform beyond the limited confines of the domestic worker's sphere.
Finally, in both the examination of the hostel violence and the violence emanating from township-based youth gangs, there exists a fundamental challenge to the quest for legislative or constitutional reform as a vehicle for protecting women who are victimised.29 The challenge emanates from the concern to move beyond a mere victimological approach in which patriarchal social relations are merely explanatory of women's oppression, to one which recognises the manner in which patriarchy constructs a male identity predisposed to such brutal reassertions of power when confronted by crisis. The implication of this perspective appears to be fundamental, not only to a gendered understanding of the escalation of socio-political violence, but also to a rights-based jurisdiction which is viewed as protecting women from such violence. Quite apart from the critique that this view is largely reactive (rather than pro-active) and that it is dependent on the thorough reform of policing practices, such a rights-based approach fails to grapple with the need to deal not only with the protection of women, but also with the transformation of male identities. Whilst this solution may "empower" women to some extent, it begs the question of how men are to be disempowered. In a sense it offers some ability to extend rights to women, yet it is incapable of disempowering men in the context of their reassertion of their own patriarchal power.
Notes:
1 There are some notable exceptions to this generalised critique. In particular in an historical context, see: Bannered, W., "Violence and Masculinity in Southern African Historiography", unpublished Mimeo.
2 For a greater explanation of this "deregulation of social control" thesis, see: Simpson, G., and Rauch, J., "Political Violence: 1991", in Boister, N. and Ferguson-Brown, K. (eds), Human Rights Yearbook 1992, First Edition. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
3 See: Simpson, G., Mokwena, S. and Segal, L., "Political Violence in 1990: the Year in Review", in Robertson, M. and Rycroft, A. (eds), Human Rights and Labour Law Yearbook 1991, Vol. 2, Cape Town: Oxford University Press (1992), pp. 193-219.
4 Vogelman, L., and Eagle, G., "Overcoming Endemic Violence Against Women", in Social Justice, Vol. 18, Nos. 1-2 (1991).
6 Financial Mail, 15/02/1991; The Star, 28/01/1991. Although more recent statistics are available, they are no more reliable than those offered here. Furthermore, I have deliberately sought comparative statistics for the period 1989 and 1990 as this period is coterminous with the dramatic processes of formal transition heralded by the unbanning of the liberation movements and the shift to a politics of negotiation in the wake of February 1990. These statistics, with all their problems, seem most "symbolic" to the analysis offered in this paper.
7 Vlok, quoted by Radio 702 News, 03/04/1991.
9 Ritchken, E., "Rural Political Violence: The Meaning of the Anti-Witchcraft Attacks", Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation Seminar Paper, No. 5, June 1989.
10 Vogelman, L. and Eagle, G., opcit., p. 13.
11 See Valla, V., "Family Murders in South Africa", Psychology Hons Paper, University of the Witwatersrand, unpublished (1988); also The Star, 18/11/1988; and 22/11/1988.
13 The Star, 26/06/1988; and 06/08/1988.
14 Weekly Mail, Feb 1-7, 1991.
15 Motsei, M., "'The Best Kept Secret': Violence Against Domestic Workers", Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation Seminar Paper, No. 5, July 1990.
18 Quoted in True Love Magazine (March, 1987), pp. 50-1.
19 See Gibson, K., Mogale, N., and Friendlander, R., "Some Preliminary Ideas About the Meaning of Inkatha Violence for Children Living in Alexandra", paper presented to the 8th National Congress of the South African Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, September 12-14 1991, University of the Witwatersrand.
20 Radio 702 News, 03/04/1991.
21 See Mokwena, S. "The Era of the Jackrollers: Contextualising the rise of youth gangs in Soweto", Paper presented at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Seminar No. 7, 30 October.
24 On this point see: Segal, L., Simpson, G., and Vogelman, L., "Why the townships turned into war zones", in The Star, 19 August 1990.
25 Segal, L., "The Human Face of Violence: Hostel Dwellers Speak", Journal of South African Studies, Vol. 18, No. 1 (March, 1991), pp. 190-231.
26 Walker, C., "Gender and Ethnicity", Conference on Ethnicity, Society and Conflict in Natal, University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg), September 1992.
27 Walker, C., "Gender and Ethnicity", Conference on Ethnicity, Society and Conflict in Natal, University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg), September 1992.
28 Posel, D., "Women's Powers, Men's Authority: Rethinking Patriarchy", unpublished mimeo.
29 This is quite apart from the obvious importance of a gendered perspective in evaluating the developmental solutions to both the hostel phenomenon (consider the alternative of creating "family units" for example) as well as to the problem of marginalised youth. It is not possible in the space available here to begin to tackle these social issues.
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