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Concept paper on The Women's Movement in southern Africa
Professor Rudo Gaidzanwa
September, 2006

Read Research report: Vibrancy of the Women's Movement in the SADC
Read Background paper: Reinvigorating and Sustaining a Vibrant Women's Movement is Southern Africa

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Executive summary
In recent years there have been a number of concerns raised about the state of the women's movement in Southern Africa. The dearth of funding and leadership, and difficulties crafting a relevant gender-wise political agenda for a new generation of post-independence African citizens, are but a few of the crises. Yet, today half of all women living in SADC live below the poverty line, and women represent close to 60 percent of all people living with HIV and AIDS.

The region is also grappling with an epidemic of violence and sexual abuse against women and girls. There is a clear need for independent, well organised social movements that are able to articulate the needs and interests of their members. It is clear too that This paper seeks to provide inter alia, a theoretical framework through which to understand the current crises faced by the women's movement in southern Africa, and is intended to be read in conjunction with the research report that OSISA commissioned, for the Women's Rights Roundtable meeting, held from October 9 - 11, 2006, entitled, "Reinvigorating and Sustaining a Vibrant Women's Movement in Southern Africa." As such, the paper outlines and analyses the history, development, characteristics, shape, form, functions and responsibilities of the women's movement in Southern Africa. Those characteristics of the women's movement that distinguish it from other social movements are described and the various discourses associated with the women's movement outlined. The paper then analyses critically, some of the salient issues raised in the research report, linking them to concepts and developments in the social and political contexts of the Southern African and other regions of the world.

The paper should be read in conjunction with the research report that was produced as a result of field research conducted in various SADC countries by a team of consultants commissioned by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA). The concept paper is used here as a point of discussion on various issues regarding the loss of vibrancy of the women's movement in Southern Africa. This and other issues mentioned and briefly discussed, merit further and more comprehensive discussion during the October roundtable meeting. Some of the issues that were raised in the preparations for the roundtable in October, as well as those raised in the research report include: • Women's rights in the era of HIV and AIDS;

• Leadership and inclusiveness of the movement;
• Alliances and partnerships of the movement;
• The women's movement political agenda; and
• Resources, skills and knowledge for the women's movement, among other issues.

The paper attempts to define some of the key concepts that provide a framework for the understanding the women's movement, and these include:

Social movement
A social movement is an organised and collective attempt to further a common interest or secure a common goal outside the sphere of established institutions. Participants in social movements may work and be located within as well as outside established organisations, which may or may not allow them to pursue specific issues within the contexts of their everyday jobs or occupations.

Women's movement
The women's movement is defined as a social movement constituting women who may belong to different races, classes, ethnic and age groups and who collectively decide to further interests specific to women, using perspectives that draw from and highlight their lived experiences.

Feminism
Feminism is a contested term in political vocabulary. However, feminism was originally devised by radical women as a term to refer to the collectively organised political struggle against sexist oppression for the benefit of all women AND other groups such as oppressed men.

Liberal feminism
Liberal feminism focuses its energies mainly on struggles for equality between men and women. The discourses of liberal feminism are the most dominant internationally because of the hegemony and economic, political and ideological strength of the liberal economic and political agenda globally. Liberal feminism can have a positive impact especially on women's lives in the short term without necessarily challenging and eradicating systems of domination such as imperialism, capitalism, racism, class and gender discrimination.

Radical feminism
Radical feminism takes different shades and tends to be informed by the experiences of women who question the capitalist system and liberal democracy, which is hegemonic internationally. In the radical feminist camp are socialist and Marxist feminists as well as theorists amongst racial and other minorities in the USA and Europe. Radical feminism questions the hegemony of the dominant liberal feminist agenda because it ignores the lived experiences of colonised, previously enslaved, minority and other women living under conditions of poverty and economic underdevelopment globally.

Is there an African Feminist Perspective?
In Africa, women and men have different perspectives based on their race, class, age and other characteristics. Their politics are divergent ranging from liberal, Marxist and eclectic. Many do not identify themselves as 'feminists' because of their objection to the dominant strands of feminism exhibited by predominantly middle class women in the state, party and civil sectors.

Religious and ethnic issues also inform African men and women's self-identification and politics, resulting in a divergence of political positions and practices on major issues such as reproductive rights, sexuality, and family, economic and political rights.

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