She is a regular media commentator and made contributions to various news outlets about Women’s Month 2024.
As Associate Professor, she heads up the Research Programme at Mandela University’s Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy (CANRAD).
Her books include Sitting Pretty – White Afrikaans Women in Postapartheid South Africa.
In a recent article on the news site Netwerk24, Christi notes both progress and ongoing discrimination and violence faced by women across social spheres.
Major achievements can be seen because of the advancement of gender justice through policy and institutional changes, as well as through personal perseverance.
Examples in this regard include Kamala Harris as potentially the first black female president in the U.S., and Mia le Roux, the first Miss South Africa to also be living with a hearing impairment.
Le Roux exemplifies the power of representation, as her crowning shifts the boundaries of beauty. Aesthetic ideals have historically been determined by colonial notions of race, class and bodily ability, among others. This is why beauty contests should not simply be dismissed as frivolous, writes Christi.
The strong stance taken by Le Roux on fairness and inclusion, with specific reference to people living with disabilities, challenges ideas of who may be counted as “beautiful”.
Le Roux does not shy away from pointing out unfair discrimination. Receiving a cochlear implant at a young age with the financial help of community members, Le Roux had to go undergo intensive speech therapy. Her journey was fraught with overcoming prejudiced attitudes that equate hearing impairment with lesser intelligence.
She talks about being denied opportunities simply because of her disability. Based on her lived reality, Le Roux advances the right of people living with disabilities to be provided with access that enables their full expression as human beings.
Conversely, the withdrawal of Chidimma Adetshina as co-finalist in the Miss South Africa competition shows how nationality and race can be used to police the boundaries of acceptable womanhood.
An Afrophobic backlash was unleashed in which the legitimacy of Adetshina’s participation was questioned simply on the basis of her having a Nigerian surname. The hostility she faced was so severe that she withdrew from the competition, citing safety concerns.
Subsequent investigation found evidence that her mother, who is of Mozambican descent, might have been involved in identity theft. Still, it is worth reminding South Africans that Mozambican people have as migrant labourers contributed to the building of South Africa since the discovery of gold in the 19th century. Afrophobic reaction denies the entanglement of peoples in southern Africa.
After Adetshina was invited to participate in the Miss Universe-Nigeria competition, a popular Nigerian singer, Burna Boy, also entered the fray. He suggested something was amiss with the choice of Le Roux, referring to either her disability or her race, or both. The saga demonstrates the ease with which prejudice travels across borders.
At a global level, the 2024 Olympic Games provided an opportunity to challenge gender discrimination under the guise of religion. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, the winner of the women’s marathon, wore a head covering during her medal ceremony, sending a powerful message about religious freedom.
This stands in contrast to the host nation France’s ban on head coverings for female athletes, which exemplifies how secular arguments can be misused to perpetuate Islamophobia.
Amid these narratives of accomplishment, resilience and struggle, the murder of 16-year-old Deveney Nel from Grabouw serves as a sombre reminder of the violent patriarchy that persists. Her death underlines the urgent need for us to think and act against the destructive ideas that fuel violence against women.
Women’s Month 2024 reveals both the strides made and the ongoing battles towards gender justice. It highlights the complex intersections of gender with race, ability, nationality, and religion, urging a deeper reflection on the issues faced by women globally.
READ THE ARTICLE ON NETWERK24
On Women’s Day, the SABC’s Afrikaans radio station RSG featured an interview with Christi on her extensive archival research into the life and work of the first South African woman to become a medical doctor, the “formidable” Dr Petronella van Heerden.
Petronella, known as “Nell”, studied in Amsterdam from 1908 to 1915, and later specialised in gynaecology, another first for South African women. She opened a medical practice in Harrismith in 1916 before returning to Amsterdam in 1921, writing the first dissertation in Afrikaans in the medical sciences.
Nell's inquisitive nature extended beyond medicine. Having befriended Dorothy Garrod, professor of archaeology and the first woman to hold a Chair at Cambridge, she participated as an amateur archaeologist in excavations in Palestine and southern Africa. Being vehemently anti-fascist, she joined the medical corps of the South African defence force during World War II after Adolf Hitler invaded the Netherlands in 1940.
Balancing contradictory positions, Nell as both an early feminist and an Afrikaner nationalist had entered politics to champion women's right to vote. After a confrontation with an unapologetic DF Malan about the National Party’s antisemitism, she resigned from party structures and wrote in support of socialism and against fascism and racism.
Her commitment to social justice was influenced by early encounters with feminist figures such as Emily Hobhouse and Olive Schreiner. Hobhouse, an outspoken critic of the British concentration camps during the South African War (1899-1902), and Schreiner, a socialist and feminist intellectual and writer, both inspired Nell.
Nell's personal life outraged conservative contemporaries as she lived openly as a lesbian. Her first significant relationship was with Gladys Steyn, daughter of the last president of the Orange Free State, who left her career as school principal to live with Nell in Harrismith.
Steyn became the first female lawyer in South Africa, after studying in London. Nell’s longest relationship was with Irene “Freddie” Heseltine, stretching from the early 1920s when they met, to Nell’s passing in 1975.
Listen to the podcast of the interview about Petronella van Heerden
Read an article on Petronella “Nell” van Heerden
Read more on Prof Christi van der Westhuizen at Mandela University
Prof Christi van der Westhuizen co-editor of The D-Word – Perspectives on Democracy in Tumultuous Times, published by Mandela University Press.
Read an excerpt from Sitting Pretty – White Afrikaans Women in Postapartheid South Africa