Examining the limitations of legislative frameworks to address violence against women: a case study of the Cape Flats
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2023
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University of Cape Town
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This research study is focused on highlighting the limitations of disproportionately relying on legislation in order to prevent and protect against the scourge of violence perpetrated against women in South Africa. It does so by examining the context of the Cape Flats as a case study in order to suggest that the prevalence of structural violence and inequalities that are rooted in the apartheid past, coupled with the deeply entrenched patriarchal structure that underscores various manifestations of violence, ultimately limits the efficacy of legislation designed to subvert, prevent, and protect against the epidemic of gender-based violence for women who live in these localities. The outcome of this study asserts that while legislation is a necessary component in the fight towards addressing, subverting and ultimately eradicating the scourge of violence against women in South Africa, it is limited in its scope as a tool for social change, given the extensive structural inequalities that permeate the social and economic landscapes of the country. These structural inequalities exist on a continuum of power that is defined by identity factors such as race, class, and gender, and are a legacy of the apartheid past. Therefore, this study reveals that the extent of the law is limited in its scope, in that while it is progressive on paper, it fails to permeate the entrenched and pervasive patriarchal cultural beliefs, values, and attitudes that inform and underpin gender relations and the perpetration of gender-based violence. Hence, this study asserts that intervention strategies that are employed to address and eradicate violence against women are required to be intersectional in their nature, collaborative and multisectoral in their approach, and indicative of an awareness of the socio-cultural, structural, and historical dynamics of the communities where these manifestations of violence are rampant.
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Levendal, A. 2023. Examining the limitations of legislative frameworks to address violence against women: a case study of the Cape Flats. . University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Law ,Department of Public Law. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/43296