Female Fury

What is making women angry, and can that rage be channelled for good? Kim Chakanetsa speaks to feminist writers from South Africa and the US.

US writer and media critic Soraya Chemaly says women across the world have a right to be angry. Their rights are undermined, they're routinely underpaid and belittled. But from an early age girls are also taught to suppress their anger and calm themselves down when fired up. She says women need to learn to embrace rage as a tool for positive change. Soraya recently published a book called Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger.

Dela Gwala is a South African activist and writer, who found feminism in the aftermath of being sexually assaulted. Her white-hot rage at the victim-blaming she faced fuelled her campaigning. It was only when that anger ran out a couple of years later that she says she realised she needed to confront and deal with her other emotions. Dela recently contributed to an anthology called Feminism Is: South Africans Speak Their Truth.

L - Dela Gwala (credit: Dela Gwala)
R - Soraya Chemaly (credit: Karen Sayre)