Intersectional Politics in Action: Women's Roles and Representation in South Africa's Political Movements

In this paper, I discuss women's role in political movements during apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, drawing on the work of Carol Pateman (1989) and Shireen Hassim (2006) to examine how political movements in South Africa, whether feminist or not, have been framed within a masculinist political order. The paper begins by exploring the concept of women being constructed to belong in the private sphere and the way it transcends to the political sphere using Carol Pateman (1989)’s argument on the disorder of women. I apply Pateman (1989)’s argument on the political sphere being framed around the fraternal social contract, examining what it means for women to enter or disrupt this ‘brotherhood of men’. To bring Pateman (1989)’s arguments forth, the paper contextualizes South Africa's political movements with support of Hassim (2006) to critically examine how the national question/race question consistently takes precedence over the gender question which perpetuates a masculinist political order. I also argue for new ways to construct political movements through an intersectional framework. The paper examines South Africa's recent #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall student movements (2015-2017) as case studies, drawing on African feminist authors like Ramaru (2017) and Dlakavu (2017), to assess potential shifts or continuities in the movements' political order.