Feminist Institutionalism in South Africa

Amanda Gouws is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the NRF funded SARChI Chair in Gender Politics, Department of Political Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her specialization is South African Politics and Gender Politics. Her research focuses on women and citizenship, the National Gender Machinery and women’s representation, areas in which she has published widely. She is the editor of (Un)Thinking Citizenship: Feminist Debates in Contemporary South Africa. Her edited book with Daiva Stasiulis, from Carleton University, Gender and Multiculturalism: North/South Perspectives appeared with Routledge Press in 2014. Edited volumes with Joy Watson, Nasty Women Talk Back appeared with Imbali Press in 2017, and with Olivia Ezeobi, COVID Diaries: Women’s Experience of the Pandemic, with Imbali Press, 2021. She was a Commissioner for the South African Commission for Gender Equality from 2012-2014. She received the Rector’s Award for Media Engagement and Thought Leadership in 2018 and 2019. She currently resides in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

• DedicationTable of ContentsList of AcronymsDiagramsTablesForewordAcknowledgementsIntroductionFeminist Institutionalism: Views from the South, Amanda GouwsSection One A History of the Commission for Gender EqualityChapter 1Imagining a New World: A Brief History of the South African Feminist Experiment in Institutionalism, Shireen HassimChapter 2Governance, Governmentality and Power in the Commission on Gender Equality 1997 – 2016, Sheila MeintjesChapter 3In the Belly of the Commission for Gender Equality: Of Structural Problems and Straitjackets, Amanda GouwsChapter 4The Battle Machine, or How to undo a Commission for Gender Equality, Lisa VettenSection TwoSuccesses of the Feminist Imaginary in the Commission for Gender EqualityChapter 5A Feminist Footprint? The Commission for Gender Equality and the Courts, Cathi AlbertynChapter 6The Commission for Gender Equality – Leveraging Constitutional Rights to Gender Equality, Janine HicksSection ThreeThe Femin