Women's Struggles

Women have played an important role in the liberation struggle as members of the ANC and allied organisations, as trade unionists and in other capacities. They carried on militant campaigns against the hated pass laws. They participated in the underground and armed struggle when that became indispensable. Many women suffered restriction, imprisonment, torture and even brutal assassination by the racist regime.

Recognising their role, the ANC formed the Women's League in 1943. The Federation of South African Women (FSAW), a multi-racial body, was established on 17 April 1954 - with the ANC Women's League as its largest component - to organise a united struggle against apartheid.

Ruthless repression by the regime prevented FSAW and the Women's League from functioning after 1960. But women found ways to continue their resistance through new legal organisations or the underground structures. In the external mission, the Women's Section of the ANC played an active role.

The ANC Women's League was re-launched in Durban, after the unbanning of the ANC, on 9 August 1990, the anniversary of the great march of women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956 to denounce the pass laws.

Women's Charter - Aims of FSAW Adopted at Founding Conference, 17 April 1954
Women Known to have Attended Founding Conference of FSAW, 17 April 1954
'What Women Want' - List of Demands Compiled by FSAW for Inclusion in the Freedom Charter, 1955
Petition Presented to Prime Minister, Union Buildings, Pretoria, 9 August 1956
Petition Presented to Prime Minister (copy of original petition form), Union Buildings, Pretoria, 9 August 1956
"Repeal the Pass Laws..." - Flyer Issued by the FSAW and ANCWL, 13 June 1957
Effects of Apartheid on the Status of Women in South Africa, 1980. Extracts from paper prepared by the UN Secretariat for the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women, Copenhagen, July 1980
The Role of Woment in the Struggle against Apartheid, 1980. Extracts from paper prepared by the UN Secretariat for the World Conference of the United Nations Decade for Women, Copenhagen, July 1980
Speech by Oliver Tambo at the Opening Session of the First Conference of the ANC Women's Section, Luanda, September 10, 1981
Speech by Oliver Tambo at the Concluding Session of the Conference of the ANC Women's Section, Luanda, September 14, 1981
'Now you have Touched the Women' - African Women's Resistance to the Pass Laws in South Africa 1950-1960, by Elizabeth S. Schmidt, March 1983
Women in Apartheid Society - by Fatima Meer, April 1985
Malibongwe Conference - Programme of Action, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 13 - 18 January 1990
Message from Oliver Tambo to the Rally to Relaunch the ANC Women's League, Durban, 9 August 1990
For their Triumphs and for their Tears - Women in Apartheid South Africa, book by Hilda Bernstein
Women and the African National Congress: 1912-1943, Frene Ginwala, Umrabulo 13, 2001