Introducing 

Prezi AI.

Your new presentation assistant.

Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.

Loading content…
Loading…
Transcript

Domestic Violence in South Africa: Societal Effects and Political Evolution

Sources

Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, No. 66, Gender-Based Violence Trilogy Volume 1,1: Domestic Violence (2005), pp. 4-15.

BENDALL, CHARLOTTE. "The Domestic Violence Epidemic in South Africa: Legal and Practical Remedies." Women's Studies 39, no. 2 (March 2010): 100-118. Literary Reference Center, EBSCOhost (accessed April 28, 2016).

Shahana Rasool Bassadien, and Tessa Hochfeld. 2005. “Across the Public/private Boundary: Contextualising Domestic Violence in South Africa”. Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity, no. 66. [Agenda Feminist Media, Taylor & Francis, Ltd.]: 4–15. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4066529.

Show me the money’: A review of budgets allocated towards the implementation of South Africa's Domestic Violence Act, Lisa Vetten. Politikon. Vol. 32, Iss. 2, 2005

Cultural Norms

Legal Definition of Domestic Violence

  • Majority of men and over half of women believe that women should obey men's wishes
  • Abuse in many places is normal and expected
  • Over 50% of women report being abused within the past year
  • Strong belief that "what happens in the house stays inside the house"
  • Physical and sexual abuse
  • Emotional, verbal and psychological abuse
  • Economic abuse
  • Intimidation, harassment, stalking
  • Damage to property
  • Entry into the complainant's residence without consent, where the parties do not share the same residence
  • Any other controlling or abusive behavior

Agenda

Reporting Statistics

"Parents have a lot to do with it;

they sit with you and say

'It has happened to every woman', 'How can you make a scene, you are bringing down the family name?'"

  • Less than 1% report sexual assault and domestic violence
  • Black women report even less than white women and other women of color

Challenges to the

Domestic Violence Act

"Families had a tendency to tell them to keep a roof on their problem thereby disempowering them. They also said that it wos difficult to separate divorce from who you are actually divorcing, as in the case of African women, the whole family would be involved. The family could also be your friends, who although support you, encourage you to stay. This is an issue that goes back to lobola as a woman is not just married to her husband: her family is actually married to his family."

  • Overview of Definition of Domestic Violence
  • Who is Affected, and Why?
  • Cultural Norms
  • Challenges to Dominant Culture
  • Legislation and Bright Spots
  • Limitations of Legislation
  • Questions!
  • Does not do enough to serve justice to perpetrators
  • Lack of access to resources based on racial and socioeconomic factors
  • Limited burden of proof for victims

Who are the victims of violence?

Challenges to Dominant Culture

  • Mainly children and women between the ages of 15 and 49
  • Over 60,000 women and children are regularly abused in South Africa
  • In many areas, more than 1/3 of women are victims of regular abuse
  • Women raised in rural areas, lower education, unemployed experience heightened violence
  • International pressure and focus on gender equity and mitigating violence against women
  • Bad international reputation for women's safety
  • Fundamental cultural change
  • Domestic Violence Act of 1998

Domestic Violence Act (1998)

Sources of international pressure

  • Domestic and sexual violence declared a major international issue by UN in 1990s
  • Series of Conferences to Address the Issue
  • World Conference on Human Rights (1993)
  • International Conference on Population and Development (1994)
  • Fourth World Conference on Women (1995)

Who are the perpetrators?

  • Served as the first legislation of any kind to protect against domestic violence in South Africa
  • Allows for protective orders

Cultural Drivers for Change

  • Increased educational levels for women
  • Grassroots activism for women's health and rights
  • Influence of Soul City
  • TV show and radio broadcast
  • 24-hour crisis line
  • Primarily male
  • Intimate family or romantic relationships (husband, father, brother, uncle)
  • Abuse considered common and socially acceptable
  • Abuse comes from a position of relative power
Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi