ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role of women’s organisations in the political and ideological struggle to raise the revolutionary consciousness of women in South Africa. The former analysis leads to an understanding of the general factors underlying the formation of women’s organisations, the general role of women and of women’s organisations in the national liberation struggle, and the general nature, and aims and objectives of these organisations. The development of a formal position on women’s oppression and the role of women in the struggle within the independent trade union movement and political organisations was largely due to the widespread participation of women in popular struggles and the emergence and proliferation of the women’s organisations. The leadership of the women’s organisations consisted of veterans of the 1950s and the Congress Alliance and younger, educated, black women, many politicised through student politics.
