THE ANC WOMEN'S LEAGUE, sex, gender and politics

159pp., paperback, Reprint, Johannesburg, (2014) 2021

A short history of the ANC Women's League, founded in 1918 and initially called The Bantu Women's League.

"It has always regarded itself, indeed, as the women’s movement in South Africa, frequently asserting that it is the vanguard organization and the only legitimate voice of the women of South Africa. But, as I hope this little book will show, the history of the league is a more complicated affair, as it was neither the only women’s organisation in the political field nor was it an easy ally for South African feminism." from the introduction

Shireen Hassim is Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and the author of Fatima Meer, a free mind and Women's Organisations and Democracy in South Africa, contesting authority.