Strong women’s movement vital to fight GBV

SOUTH Africa has notoriously high levels of violence against women. The latest police figures show that 10 818 rape cases were reported in the first quarter this year.

The country has among the highest number of rapes in the world. How can gender-based violence (GBV) be reduced in South Africa?

It’s important to understand the causes of GBV – with a focus on sexual violence – globally and in South Africa There are many contested theories.

Louise du Toit, a Stellenbosch University philosopher, analysed these: Past-perpetrator violence. Social and economic exclusion.

Injured masculinity or patriarchal politics (reaction to women gaining rights.

Violence that is a condition of human existence (ontological violence). She showed that each theory on its own could not explain sexual violence. Many men were involved or caught up in apartheid or the liberation Struggle violence. Yet, women were also victims of that violenceseldom commit sexual violence.

Poverty and loss of breadwinner status does not explain why men of all classes rape. If women’s progress undermines men’s status and dominance, why do men retaliate with sexual violence?

Ontological violence makes the most sense. It relates violence to men’s sense of entitlement to women’s bodies and hypermasculinity. It is, therefore, hard to find suitable common ground for interventions to reduce violence.

Having researched GBV extensively, I concur with Du Toit’s analysis. Most theories fall short of explaining all aspects of gender-based and sexual violence. I believe interventions need to be anchored in solutions for ontological violence and have to be multifaceted.

Ontological violence is difficult to address because its origins are diffuse and it relates to men’s treatment of women that has long histories.

Yet, there are studies that aim to create multifaceted solutions to deal with different dimensions of GBV, and sexual violence that have become normalised as part of human existence.

Here I single out three such studies: GBV and political economy

Jacqui True, an Australian professor of international relations, uses a political economy approach to analyse GBV globally.

In her view, all violence stems from relations of inequality. A political economy approach shows the connections between the economic, social and political realms. It looks at the distribution of resources, benefits, privileges and power in the home, the state and transnational communities.

Second, such an approach engages the global macroeconomic environment. It shows how neo-liberal economic policies and capitalist competition depend on cheap labour and precarious jobs that make women more vulnerable to violence. This contributes to structural inequalities in which women are the worst off.

South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world and has a history of conflict.

Third, True’s approach shows the connections between GBV and global conflicts. Hypermasculinity and military masculinity contribute to the normalisation of violence in societies, even after conflict has stopped.

Addressing GBV Canadian political scientist Laurel Weldon’s research shows the importance of government responsiveness through policy to reduce GBV. A government that creates a broader, more multifaceted response, early in the rise of the problem, has more success in tackling it.

Weldon also found that national identity, culture and level of development don’t strongly predict sexual violence. What makes the greatest impact to reduce violence is a strong, independent women’s movement.

US political scientist Hannah Britton, in her 2020 book, Ending Gender Based Violence: Justice and Community in South Africa, points out that mass incarceration does not work. That’s because it holds only individuals responsible and the state is then absolved from responsibility.

The number of women in government counts less than whether they put gender violence on the legislative agenda. It also helps to have state structures that promote gender equality, such as an office of the status of women. Successful policy responses are, therefore, driven by committed feminist women in state structures.