Abstract
This book focuses on the intersections of gender, sexuality, and violence in the educational spaces of South Africa. The book has chapters written by different experts and gives a complete look at these issues in South Africa. The authors characterize the book as the end of a journey that began more than 20 years ago in relation to violence in schools and universities, when violence was recognized as a significant barrier in the educational environment. The authors add more context to violence in primary, secondary schools and universities in South Africa. The authors integrate analysis of research on sexual and children’s violence into the chapters of this book.
The authors look at the intersections of gender, sexuality, and violence in South African schools from a broad and multidisciplinary perspective. They provide in-depth discussions of hegemonic masculinities and violence in primary schools and analyse heterosexual femininity in both primary, secondary, and higher education. They also highlight the experiences of students and teachers with respect to sexual harassment and explore related issues of fear, health, and well-being among students on university campuses. This unique and nuanced approach allows the authors to shed light on the complex and interrelated nature of these issues and contribute to the broader conversation about gender inequality in education.
The authors provide context on how gender and sexual violence in the educational environment can be a challenge to gender equality, as well as how, despite the persistence of international awareness among governments, civil society, and the international community, gender and violence in education continue to be a global challenge. Each section addresses different but related themes such as hegemonic masculinities and violence in primary schools, heterosexual femininity in schools and institutions of higher education, teachers and sexual harassment, fear, health, and well-being of students on campus that affect gender in educational spaces, and how gender and sexuality are connected to violence in South Africa. The authors explain the education experiences of children and teenagers who are historically situated regarding apartheid’s consequences. They come from various social and educational contexts where factors such as race, gender, class, age, and sexuality intersect to provide a unique perspective on their experiences with violence.
This book adds a lot to what we know about sexual harassment and how schools and universities deal with it. The authors outlined several issues connected to violence that affect women and girls in schools and universities, then contextualized this discussion with evidence from South Africa and worldwide.
In Chapter 9, the authors discuss why the victim-blaming mentalities of female students support stereotypical femininity. Many of these studies focus on alcohol-related masculinity constructs in which men become too sexual and dominant in relationships, leading to violence against women in high schools and universities. The authors explore the norms surrounding femininity and how these norms contribute to the cultural perception that female students who engage in certain behaviours, such as drinking alcohol or wearing revealing clothing, become responsible for any violence they may face from male students. This reinforces the notion that women’s bodies and actions are to be controlled and regulated, thus shifting the responsibility for violence away from the perpetrators and onto the victims. The author clearly exposes that fear is an attribute of women that causes gender-based violence, and men can take advantage of such a condition.
Building on the work of feminist theorists, Chapter 10 explains gender and masculinities to show how sexual harassment is linked to gendered and heterosexual norms as well as the larger inequalities that cause it. They make a strong connection between the chapters on hegemonic masculinity and heterosexual femininity to figure out how men and men’s power work and how women think they should react to men in South African educational settings.
Chapter 11 teases out tensions about the health, well-being, and safety of women in educational institutions globally. The authors explore the challenges that women face while tolerating and keeping silent against violence, gender segregation, and racial discrimination in educational environments. Sexual harassment decreased some girls’ motivation to stay in school while raising their fear of being isolated if their parents found out about any incidents. In Chapter 12, the authors analyse the understanding of male university peer educators regarding gender violence on campus. The research is based on the idea that peer educators are the key to addressing and preventing gender violence by challenging the gender norms that normalize it. The authors find three key themes that contribute to gender violence: connections between male bodies and physical strength; the relationship between alcohol and masculinity; cultural and traditional views that validate male dominance; and violent expressions of masculinity. Despite their opposition to male dominance and gender violence, most peer educators in the study sometimes comply with hegemonic masculine norms, highlighting the importance of peer education to encourage young men to reflect on their beliefs and practices.
The book doesn’t address certain topics, such as the authors’ rejection of biology and brain wiring as determinants of gender and sexuality. Instead, they emphasize the importance of power relations and social constructs. In doing so, the book fails to fully explore how race affects experiences of violence and victimization in South African primary schools. The book also misses to provide practical advice on how to implement values of respect or Ubuntu or how to have meaningful conversations about gender issues.
Despite this, the book still does a good job of critically engaging with issues of gender in institutions of education in South Africa and will be of interest to scholars and researchers in education, gender studies, sociology, psychology, and human rights.