Collage
In the Words of the Patriarchy
There has been a scarcity of research regarding how women who committed crimes of mariticide and filicide were viewed, treated and sentenced by male-authoritative figures in the early twentieth century Cape Province and Transvaal courts. This paucity needs to be further examined within an historical context. This paper argues that the state used the legal system to interact with female perpetrators on the basis of paternalism and marginality in early 20th century South Africa. Paternalism was a clear influence on the actions of the authorities, which negatively affected the lives of women throughout the pre-apartheid era, who were treated as second class citizens based on their race and gender. By examining the criminal case court records of my Masters and PhD research this paper will explore how authoritative male-run institutions such as the judge, jury, doctors, policemen, reporters and partners used their power to suppress women who were believed to have deviated from the social norms of this time. This papers draws on archival materials as well as newspaper reports. These research materials do not only aid in the exploration of the agency of women criminals throughout this time period, it has also resulted in a creation of a collage dedicated to statements made by male authoritative figures who determined and influenced the way these women were tried. This paper therefore analyses the words used by these authority figures to explore how women were not in control of their own narratives and offers an alternative way of interpreting these words within a more creative setting.