�My body not your crime scene�: Mutuality, power and solidarity in South Africa's feminist movement � the case of #TheTotalShutdown

Abstract

This research investigates the complex leadership dynamics within South Africas feminist movement, with a focus on the transformative potential and limitations of collective feminist leadership. While using a process-based leadership approach, this study explores the case of #TheTotalShutdown (TTS) a feminist movement that brought national attention to the issues of gender-based violence (GBV) and femicide through an African-feminist and ubuntu-informed lens. The study explores the relationships between three core elements: the quality of mutuality between leaders and followers; the interplay of structural and social power; and the transformative potential of collective-feminist leadership. At the same time, it interrogates the internalised undercurrents of structural violence that undermine this form of collective action. In doing so, the research contributes to scholarship on feminist leadership and social movements in African contexts, offering insights into the conditions necessary for building and sustaining feminist organising and advancing gender justice.