Sandy Africa and Lwanda Maqwelane examine the widening gap between the constitutional promise of equality and the lived reality of South African women, arguing that economic exclusion, gender-based violence, and unimplemented legislation leave women systemically undervalued.

Many women have made remarkable strides in democratic South Africa. Yet South African society remains deeply unequal, with race, class, and gender inequality deeply entrenched in its fabric. African women, in particular, remain the most marginalised section of society. If economic marginalisation is the slow violence that shapes women’s lives, gender-based violence is the acute violence that can result in women losing their lives.

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