Mandisa Mbali,
"Women in South African AIDS Activism:
Towards a Feminist Economic and Political Agenda to Address the Epidemic"
(page 3 of 8)
In 2005, Cha-Cha Connor and I embarked on an ethnographic study in
Durban of 50 women AIDS activists from all of South Africa's racial
groups to discuss the barriers they faced in conducting feminist
organizing around the epidemic (2007). Because of the activists' fears
about negative consequences if they revealed their names, the study was
conducted on the condition that its participants and their organizations
would remain anonymous. Unsurprisingly, given women activists' fears of
negative repercussions if their critiques of their organizations
appeared openly in print, voicelessness was the key issue that emerged
in the study. Women AIDS activists felt there was resistance to
substantive discussion of gender issues in their organization. One
activist told us that in her organization:
Gender had been identified, but they were just resisting
[the inclusion of] gender. I mean, they would go so far as purchasing a
T-shirt that had a "women in AIDS" message on it, and that would be
about it. (Interview, April 27, 2005).
As we have seen, women make up the majority of those living with the
virus in South Africa. They also make up the majority of ordinary
members of AIDS-related movements and organizations. Yet their voices
have not been prominent in AIDS campaigns, or in the local or
international media. One woman activist told us:
Women have been participating in AIDS organizing since
the beginning of the epidemic. But . . . a woman who does home-based care
and a woman who's caring for orphans gets credited and thanked. And then
a man . . . who speaks on behalf of everybody gets prestigious
recognitions . . .. I think that needs to change, because women are doing similar kinds of
work. It's like we are good if we are doing domestic and caring types of
H.I.V./AIDS work . . . but then if you do political stuff, you get
marginalised: no recognition whatsoever. (Interview, April 27,
2005).
It would appear that rhetoric about "women and AIDS" and "gender and
AIDS," which is commonly deployed in the "AIDS world" of the Joint U.N.
Program on H.I.V./AIDS (UNAIDS), the World Health Organization,
scientists, donors and international NGOs, has not always translated
into gender transformative practice in South African AIDS NGOs. These
issues remain current in South African AIDS activism. For instance, in
relation to the Treatment Action Campaign, Janine Stephen recently
argued:
As with any organization, TAC's members reflect the
society they live in; the organization is not immune to sexism. Changing
attitudes towards women and promoting equality have become a vital
focus. But changing mindsets is not something that happens overnight
(2009: 165).
According to Stephen, although formal moves have been underway to
improve the organization's commitment to gender equality in recent
years, there have been setbacks along the way. In particular, in 2007
several senior women in the organization resigned, and in the absence of
an official TAC press release about the issue, rumors were generated
that the resignations were related to "the organization's lack of
commitment to women's issues" (2009: 166). More recently, the
organization has taken steps to demonstrate its commitment to gender
equality, such as establishing a Women in Leadership program to develop
the leadership skills of women activists, the appointment of a women's
rights coordinator and the election of its first female national chair,
Nonkosi Khumalo (Stephen 2009).
However, the example of the TAC demonstrates that the internal
transformation of an activist organization does not automatically alter
cultural perceptions of women leaders. Stephen has gone on to argue that
the media often prefers speaking to the male leaders of the
organization, and that male representatives from COSATU or the ANC
sometimes state that "they don't want to talk to a woman or a child"
(2009: 169). Similarly, the ANC-led government recently created a
Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Disability. The creation of this
ministry has been critiqued by feminists as being patronizing to women,
who are adults who can claim rights independently, compared to children,
who deserve (and require) the protection of adults (Lowe Morna 2009).
This automatic equation/association of female leaders with children (and
women's interests with children's interests), and the assumption they
are less knowledgeable or competent, acts to undermine their authority
and ability to shape and implement feminist agendas. As I will argue
next, an even more serious barrier to women's AIDS activism is
gender-based violence, which is also a key social driver of new
infections.
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