The Federation of South African Women and the Black Sash : constraining and contestatory discourses about women in politics, 1954-1958

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dc.contributor.advisorDu Toit, Andréen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorSturman, Kathrynen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2016-03-28T14:30:11Z
dc.date.available2016-03-28T14:30:11Z
dc.date.issued1996en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThe period 1954 to 1958 saw an unprecedented level of mobilisation and active political campaigning by women of all races in South Africa. These campaigns were split along lines of race and class, as evidenced in the demonstrations against the extension of pass laws to African women by the Federation of South African Women [FSAW] and the campaign against the Senate Bill by liberal white women of the Black Sash. What they had in common is that both groups of women organised their action into separate structures exclusive to women, with independent identities from the male-dominated structures of the Congress Alliance and of white party politics. This separate organisation from men was not carried out with an explicit feminist agenda or a developed awareness of women's oppression, however. Nevertheless, their existence constituted a challenge to the dominant patriarchal discourse that constructed women's role as domestic and exclusive to the private sphere. Newspaper representations of the two organisations by both their political allies and their political opponents, provide evidence of this dominant discourse on "women's place" and insight on the public perception of political activity by women at the time. Within the texts of FSAW and the Black Sash one finds tensions between accepted notions of women's primary role as wives and mothers, and an emerging self-conception of women as politically active in the public realm. To an extent, the self-representation of these texts mirrors the patriarchal representations of women found in the newspaper reports. However, there are also definite departures from the traditional formulations of womanhood that can be conceived of as "contestations" to the dominant discourse. The patriarchal discourse was, therefore, a discursive constraint, both external and internalised, on women's ability to become active and effective in South Africa politics in the 1950s. Paradoxically, through the practical process of women's mobilisation in FSAW and the Black Sash, new space was opened on the political terrain that allowed for the alteration of the dominent discourse on women's place in society, as well as for the emergence of contestatory feminist discourses in South Africa.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationSturman, K. (1996). <i>The Federation of South African Women and the Black Sash : constraining and contestatory discourses about women in politics, 1954-1958</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Political Studies. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18272en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationSturman, Kathryn. <i>"The Federation of South African Women and the Black Sash : constraining and contestatory discourses about women in politics, 1954-1958."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Political Studies, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18272en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationSturman, K. 1996. The Federation of South African Women and the Black Sash : constraining and contestatory discourses about women in politics, 1954-1958. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Sturman, Kathryn AB - The period 1954 to 1958 saw an unprecedented level of mobilisation and active political campaigning by women of all races in South Africa. These campaigns were split along lines of race and class, as evidenced in the demonstrations against the extension of pass laws to African women by the Federation of South African Women [FSAW] and the campaign against the Senate Bill by liberal white women of the Black Sash. What they had in common is that both groups of women organised their action into separate structures exclusive to women, with independent identities from the male-dominated structures of the Congress Alliance and of white party politics. This separate organisation from men was not carried out with an explicit feminist agenda or a developed awareness of women's oppression, however. Nevertheless, their existence constituted a challenge to the dominant patriarchal discourse that constructed women's role as domestic and exclusive to the private sphere. Newspaper representations of the two organisations by both their political allies and their political opponents, provide evidence of this dominant discourse on "women's place" and insight on the public perception of political activity by women at the time. Within the texts of FSAW and the Black Sash one finds tensions between accepted notions of women's primary role as wives and mothers, and an emerging self-conception of women as politically active in the public realm. To an extent, the self-representation of these texts mirrors the patriarchal representations of women found in the newspaper reports. However, there are also definite departures from the traditional formulations of womanhood that can be conceived of as "contestations" to the dominant discourse. The patriarchal discourse was, therefore, a discursive constraint, both external and internalised, on women's ability to become active and effective in South Africa politics in the 1950s. Paradoxically, through the practical process of women's mobilisation in FSAW and the Black Sash, new space was opened on the political terrain that allowed for the alteration of the dominent discourse on women's place in society, as well as for the emergence of contestatory feminist discourses in South Africa. DA - 1996 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 1996 T1 - The Federation of South African Women and the Black Sash : constraining and contestatory discourses about women in politics, 1954-1958 TI - The Federation of South African Women and the Black Sash : constraining and contestatory discourses about women in politics, 1954-1958 UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18272 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/18272
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationSturman K. The Federation of South African Women and the Black Sash : constraining and contestatory discourses about women in politics, 1954-1958. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Political Studies, 1996 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18272en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of Political Studiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherPolitical Studiesen_ZA
dc.subject.otherWomen - Political activity - South Africa.en_ZA
dc.subject.otherGovernment, Resistance to - South Africaen_ZA
dc.titleThe Federation of South African Women and the Black Sash : constraining and contestatory discourses about women in politics, 1954-1958en_ZA
dc.typeMaster Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelMasters
dc.type.qualificationnameMAen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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