Sex, Gender, Becoming - PULP

104 Kammila Naidoo
Step-children or children of an earlier union are generally not
afforded the same kinds of rights and privileges as children from a
current union. Many go on to live with grandparents when the
possibility of abuse emerges. MS, the community worker instrumental
in setting up programmes dealing with cases of abused women in
Winterveld, said: 40
Mothers come in early when the child is about 13 years to put them on
contraception for fear of fathers raping them and of pregnancy arising
from sexual abuse. In the mother’s absence the eldest daughter is often
expected to replace the mother. Our response has always been to
remove the child from an abusive situation — but we are learning about
the problems of alternative arrangements for the girl and the many
problems inadequate alternatives may hold.
Of the fifteen families I interviewed, there was one within which a
teenage girl was sexually abused and later gave birth to her
stepfather’s child. I am thus not in a position to argue that such cases
are very common. Even if such cases are aberrant, I believe (from
talking to key informants) that many women fear that such incidents
have occurred and might be occurring within their families. This
seems to be an additional factor encouraging contraceptive use of
young women and facilitating tensions within households.
The early stages of women’s lives are usually considerably affected by
attempts at gaining control over sexuality and reproduction.
Widespread use of contraception, however, does not suggest
‘empowerment’ in the conventional sense. For young women to be
regarded as empowered there should be evidence of them taking
charge (simultaneously) of the various aspects of their lives (both in
the privacy of homes and public arenas of school and work). 41 The
shift towards attempting to control fertility does not appear to be a
simple case of ‘ideological change’ but a more grounded defensive
reaction of women to survive in a social environment in which they
endure inequality, sexual abuse, desertion and poverty.
5.2 Responses to domestic instability, infidelity and violence
in conjugal unions
Although early sexual experiences and pregnancies are generally
outside the confines of sanctioned unions, later child-bearing
commonly takes place within marriage or consensual unions. Of the
293 women interviewed in the micro-survey, about one-third claimed
to have had (at least) a customary union, a further one-third were in
consensual unions (some ‘living together’ and some in ‘visiting’
40 Interview, MS, 12 June 2000.
41
SE Longwe ‘Women’s empowerment framework’ in C March et al A guide to
gender-analysis framework (1999) 92.