Discourses of Gender and Political Violence in South Africa

Politically violent women are regularly muted or made exceptional. Yet, underplaying women’s involvement in political violence obscures the systemic nature of such violence. We employ a discursive psychology analysis of an in-depth interview with a South African woman who has been involved in decades of political activism, and identified two discourses: Gendering Politically Violent Symbols and Enactments, where political violence was wielded as a symbol, and Gendering Political Organizing, wherein feminist agencies were directed against political structures. Together, these discourses indicate how gender identity is simultaneously consistent and at odds with political identity and how gender intersects with political violence.

A Problem Shared? The Role of the Public in the Legitimation of Policy: A Case Study of Gendered Welfare Change in the United Kingdom

This article argues that shared problematizations—shared political and public ways of thinking—legitimize policies and their outcomes. To support this argument, it examines the legitimation of gendered welfare reform in the recent U.K. context. Drawing on focus groups with the public, it provides evidence that the public’s problematization of welfare, specifically that reform was necessary to “make work pay” and “restore fairness”, aligned with that of politicians. It argues that the assumptions and silences underpinning this shared problematization, especially silences relating to the value and necessity of care, have allowed for welfare policies that have disadvantaged women.