Sexual Violence in South Africa : Religious leaders as local norm entrepreneurs

Sexual violence against women is a broad and serious problem all over the world, but South Africa is one of the countries that stand out with their high statistics, where women are mostly targeted and exposed to this violation. At the same time, there are many women’s and human right’s organisations in South Africa working to address sexual violence and support survivors and fighting for equality between men and women. In this study, five organisations have been interviewed, whereof four of them are working with religious leaders as an approach to fights sexual violence. The result and analysis suggest the importance of both women’s and human rights organisations as norm entrepreneurs, as well as the importance of religious leaders as local actors to facilitate the work of internalizing gender equality and fight sexual violence. The mentoring and support from organisations and the work with religious leaders have shown positive progress in several areas of their work to localize and internalize gender equality. However, the organisations are facing limitations in their work with religious leaders which might limit the progress of localization and internalization.