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"He's a Man, and I'm a Woman"

Cultural Constructions of Masculinity and Femininity in South African Women's Narratives of Violence

University of Cape Town

Cheryl de La Rey

University of Cape Town

In South Africa, woman abuse is a pervasive social problem. This article explores how abused women give meaning to their experiences. Narrative interviews were used to investigate 15 women's experiences of violence from their partners. In their narratives, women constructed particular gendered identities, which reflected contradictory and ambiguous subjective experiences. Meanings women attached to their experiences of abuse were filtered through the particular social context—characterized by poverty and deprivation—within which their experiences occurred. Women's naming of the violence was linked to broader sociocultural mechanisms that construct woman abuse as a social problem in South Africa.

Key Words: domestic violence • gender construction • narrative • woman abuse

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