Degendering as a pathway to ending gender-based violence in South Africa

South Africa experiences some of the world’s highest levels of gender-based violence (GBV), including rape, femicide, and homophobic attacks. Extensive scholarship has demonstrated that gender inequality both fuels and is reinforced by GBV. This briefing advances a proposition that dismantling gender as a category of social organization, termed degendering, offers a pathway towards ending GBV. Drawing on feminist, queer, and masculinity studies, alongside findings from three projects on GBV in South African universities, I argue that efforts to reduce GBV through gender equality initiatives within existing gender structures are insufficient. Instead, degendering, disrupting the binary system that sustains unequal power relations, can transform the conditions under which violence thrives. The article considers theoretical debates on gender performativity, empirical evidence from studies on love, marriage, and campus-based violence, and the practical implications of a post-gender society. I conclude that imagining a degendered future not only reframes GBV prevention but also opens new possibilities for feminist organizing, higher education policy, and broader struggles for social justice in South Africa and beyond.