Gender Issues and Violence Surrounding Girls in a South African Context

| Criminology 102 |

| Tristan Daley

213524144 |

[Girls education movement] |

Gender issues and violence surrounding girls in a South African schooling context |

Within the social strata of Southern Africa the female student is among the most vulnerable to exploitation, particularly in the education system. This vulnerability is exploited through the government, teachers, and fellow male students by using the damaging tool of school based violence. This topic has not been studied effectively, though one of the few adequate reports was conducted by Felicia Wilson, whose report will be discussed here.

It is a sad reality that modernly girls face many obstacles that impede their path to a substantial and fair education. These obstacles include discrimination on the basis of sex, making the list of educational opportunities for girls unfairly short due to unequal investments by government. Also sexual violence against girls plays a massive role in girls struggle for a fair education, as it serves a major disruption to the welfare of girls. The human rights report (2001) confirms this by noting that “left unchecked, sexual violence in schools has a negative impact on the educational and emotional needs of girls and acts as a barrier to attaining education” (p5). These acts of sexual violence include explicit gender violence and implicit gender violence. The explicit gender based violence includes physical violations such as sexual harassment, abuse, assault, intimidation and rape that deeply affect a girl’s emotional and psychological ability to function and attain an education. The implicit gender based violence according to Akiba et al (2002) includes corporal punishment, bullying, verbal and psychological abuse, teacher’s unofficial use of students for free labour and other forms of aggressive or unauthorized behaviour that is violent. Implicit and explicit gender violence is both equally detrimental towards a girl’s education, as they dramatically...