Profiles in Diversity: Women in the New South Africa

Introduction

Introduction As SOUTH AFRICA MARCHED down the road of democracy, I began to wonder about the women there. How did racial and ethnic differences affect their attitudes toward change in South Africa? Did young women feel more positive than the elderly? Did poor women expect largesse to spill from the pocketbooks of the new government, while the middle class and wealthy anticipated a drop in their income? To get a relatively representative sample of how South Mrican women were dealing with change, I interviewed across class, racial, political and age lines. To all of the women who contributed to the text, I humbly offer my profound gratitude. Many rearranged busy schedules to accommodate me. Others spoke hesitantly because they had never before talked with a foreigner. All welcomed me warmly, and most freely responded to the question put to each of them: "What do you see for yourself and/or your children and grandchildren in the new South Africa?" Some, however, requested that their actual words in response to this query not be published. Some requested anonymity. All of the women whose profiles are published in this volume were tape-recorded. The participants were told that their profiles were being collected for a book that would show some of the diversity that exists among South Mrica's women. The diversity between the women is also reflected in the methodology employed in each ofthe chapters that follow. In some cases, the women speak less than the text that surrounds their profiles. I used their quoted words as a way of framing issues and/or background that they addressed in their taped interviews. Many of the women talk about their long family roots in South Africa; others concentrate on political events that shaped their adult lives. Some speak to a combination ofboth. I have edited the taped interviews. Some were extremely long. Others, because of interruptions, tended to wander. In editing, however, and in interpreting some ofthe 1 PROFILES IN DIVERSITY women's comments, I have kept strictly to the tone and point ofviews they articulated on the tapes. The women, too, often chose to talk about matters that were important to them, and not so much in response to specific queries. Ray Alexander, for instance, spent more than two hours discussing her youth in Latvia. Clearly that period was important in leading her to a life ofactivism in South Africa. There were two problems that arose from relying on the tape recorder. Ruth Bhengu's tape became garbled. Fortunately, I also took notes at all of the sessions. Thus, in her case, I had to fall back on the notes for some of the profile. I also included one of her columns to illustrate the punch ofher writing style, and to give readers an opportunity to see why she is one ofthe most respected journalists at the Sowetan. The initial taped interview with Minette Smit had to be redone-no doubt losing some of the spontaneity of her responses-because the tape recorder broke. I went to townships, rural areas, urban centers, and into two other areas that were previously known as homelands. Small towns like Vryburg in the Northern Cape produced interviews, as did sprawling cities like Durban, where I met a variety of women and settled on lengthy interviews with two Tamil women. In Cape Town I was fortunate in meeting several so-called Coloured women, including members of the Cape Muslim community. In Grahamstown a poor woman from a nearby township poured out her heart as she begged me nightly for money to feed her children. She was but one of the thousands ofwomen who had left the rural areas in search ofemployment. Finding none, she joined the swelling ranks ofsquatters who, ifthey are lucky, eke out an intolerable existence through contributions from family, friends, or charitable organizations. Maids working in establishments ranging from sleazy flophouses to upscale hotels, willingly expressed themselves on the conditions of their employment. Socalled Coloured maids were as bitter about the low pay and lack of respect they experienced as were the Mrican domestics I encountered. One Johannesburg maid referred to her employer (another woman) as "a devil," who "cared nothing" about the expenses encountered in traveling by minivan from her Soweto home to the train, and then by bus to the posh white suburb where she was employed six days a week. Her pay, she said, was "eaten up" by these twice weekly trips to visit her children in the township. That...