Britton, Hannah E.Stember, Mariah C2024-06-302024-06-302021-08-312021http://dissertations.umi.com/ku:17930https://hdl.handle.net/1808/35255The experiences of women during war and liberation struggles have increasingly been a topic of scholarly focus. This dissertation enhances the scope of such scholarship by showing how women in the Namibian liberation struggle furthered the movement in vital ways as combatants, care givers, and leaders. The study furthermore delineates the direct parallels between local feminist leadership in Namibia and the global feminist movement. Moreover, the period of the struggle between the 1960s and Namibian independence in 1990 resulted in permanent ruptures of family structures and social norms that shaped Namibian societies. This study contributes to the historical record of southern Africa by providing a more complete and robust understanding of war, conflict, activism, and the representative and tactical importance of gendered symbolism within pivotal social movements during the struggle for liberation from South Africa’s apartheid regime.163 pagesenCopyright held by the author.Gender studiesWomen's studiesAfrican studiesanti-apartheidconflictgenderliberation movementsNamibiasouthern AfricaDissertation