Women in their full diversity?: provincial government responses to socio-economic exclusion of lesbian, bisexual and transgender women in Gauteng

Abstract

In the past, women???s participation in the labour force was largely limited to their domestic roles. Along with changes in gender norms, post-apartheid employment equity legislation and attempts to 'mainstream' gender in State and private sector spheres contributed to significant growth in women???s employment. Still, more than two decades after apartheid, new areas of employment for women continue to be in occupations traditionally associated with ???women???s work??? (e.g. domestic work). This kind of work tends to have low status, low pay and few opportunities for advancement. Particularly, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LBT) women face barriers in accessing and completing education, and when employed experience pervasive workplace discrimination and harassment, including sexual violence. Consequently, black LBT women find themselves at the intersection of racist, classist and heterosexist discrimination. In this open forum we report on a situational analysis of government responses to socio-economic exclusion of LBT women in Gauteng. We explore the extent to which South African policy and programming respond to socio-economic exclusion of LBT women, and specific objectives include: (i) to review national policy strategies towards addressing socio-economic exclusion of LBT women; and (ii) to review how national policy filters down (or not) into provincial responses, through reviewing provincial policy and programming concerned with socio-economic exclusion of LBT women.