INTRODUCTION

This chapter takes on the parallel processes of law reform and cultural transformation by comparing gender violence reform projects in the United States with those in South Africa. It does so by focusing on one strand of advocacy, that addressing the economics of abuse. Since economic independence is central to survivors’ ability to navigate abuse, the ability to work in its aftermath can be critical. This chapter compares the respective countries’ reform projects to address the ways gender violence impacts survivors’ ability to get and keep their jobs. It places reforms addressing the impact of abuse on employment in the broader context of each country's domestic and sexual violence reform movements and describes the countries’ respective employment-related projects, with a focus on those in South Africa.

The similarities and differences in economics, culture and law underscore several lessons about the possibility of achieving transformational change. The potential for law reform in South Africa is rich, given employment laws that mandate procedurally and substantively fair dismissals, and a constitutional and statutory structure centering substantive equality. Nevertheless, high rates of violence and poverty create a wide gap between the potential for law reform and the realistic possibilities for meaningful change.

Notwithstanding differences in economics, legal access, and cultural context, the challenges in advocating to address the economic impact of gender violence in both countries are different in degree rather than in kind. Both reflect the difficulty of ensuring meaningful implementation of domestic violence law reforms. Both confront the limitations of legal advocacy for those working in the informal labor sector. And both highlight the difficulties and importance of reform that centers on challenging bias in its many forms, in order to create legal change as well as cultural transformation.

CONTEXT

Reform initiatives to address the ways gender violence interferes with women's ability to maintain paid work is best understood in the context of the respective countries’ rates of violence and abuse, and of women's participation in the paid labor market.

PREVALENCE OF ABUSE

The statistics on the prevalence of abuse in both countries reveal differences in scale, rather than in kind.