'Patriarchy needs fear': Pumla Dineo Gqola's new book on how women are kept afraid

In her latest book, academic Pumla Dineo Gqola peels back with typical depth and clarity of insight the layers of false beliefs that continue to keep women in fear of men, writes Sue de Groot

27 June 2021 - 00:00 By sue de groot

When Pumla Dineo Gqola coined the term “female fear factory” in a chapter of her 2016 book, Rape: A South African Nightmare, she had no idea how the phrase would catch on. Neither did she realise that her wide-reaching analysis of the many ways in which SA’s women are brutalised would be such a runaway success. (Rape: A South African Nightmare won the Alan Paton Award and is one of the most widely read and cited texts on rape in many countries around the world.)..

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