From a gender equality policy perspective policies of social welfare in South Africa have failed to meet the needs of poor women in South Africa to give them autonomy to join the labor force as advocated in the White Paper on Social Welfare (1997).
This paper will look at the provision of social welfare by (1) analysing the way feminist activists advocated for social welfare during the opportunity structure of the transition, (2) how the discourse of social welfare as provided for in the White Paper on Social Welfare has eroded a feminist view of welfare, and (3) the contribution of the National Gender Machinery and the women’s movement to social welfare policies in South Africa
