Women Speak

A record of the setbacks and victories of South African women from early local community-level organisation in 1982 up to the challenges of living in the 1990s and being in government in the new South Africa. This book brings together the voices of a variety of women on some of the critical issues of the times: women organising in their own communities, in trade unions and in political organisations, violence against women and personal struggles regarding relationships, lobola, lesbianism and abortion. The final chapter focuses on women in negotiations and in government. The articles are all taken from the South African community magazineSpeak; and gives a sense of what concerned women most acutely during the 1980s and early 1990s. Through most recent interviews, conducted in 1996 and 1997, the debates are brought up to date.