Post-Apartheid, Local Government - Challenges for Gender Equality.

Abstract

South Africa s constitution is often described as one of the most progressive in the world in terms of gender equality, but there have been questions on the implementation of these rights. The unemployment rates are a lot higher amongst women than men in South Africa, which means that women are more vulnerable to poverty. An impressive number of documents has been produced for the mandate of local government to improve the socio-economic situation for women. Why is that so little has been achieved for women in South Africa? This thesis sets out to explore what are the limits and challenges that local government structures face in the work to achieve more gender equality, more particularly with women s development in an urban township. Through interviews with bureaucrats from the Department of Social Development, ward councillors and ward committee members, different programs and projects such as Women s Forum, support for co-operatives, home gardens and empowerment programs, have been studied and analyzed. With an analytical framework based on state capacity and implementation theory this study finds that the Department of Social Development is struggling to make other parts of local government consider gender and that women s issues are not prioritized by all local actors in Township X. This study concludes that efforts to enhance gender equality in Township X are fragmented and lack a comprehensive approach. This is caused by a number of factors, for instance a hostile political environment at a ward-level, insufficient communication between different actors and other external factors that creates limitations when it comes to projects for women and gender equality in Township X.