Main content

Female Fury

Two women explore anger as a gendered emotion.

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)

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Mon 21 Jan 2019 23:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Mon 21 Jan 2019 03:32GMT
  • Mon 21 Jan 2019 05:32GMT
  • Mon 21 Jan 2019 11:32GMT
  • Mon 21 Jan 2019 18:32GMT
  • Mon 21 Jan 2019 21:32GMT
  • Mon 21 Jan 2019 23:32GMT

The best of The Conversation

Enlightening, inspiring, revealing: Some of our favourite Conversations so far

100 Women

Global experience on image, work, relationships, equality, migration and working lives

Podcast