The case study discussed in this Evidence Report explores the value and limitations of
collective action in challenging the community, political, social and economic institutions that
reinforce harmful masculinities and gender norms related to sexual and gender-based
violence (SGBV). As such, the concept of structural violence is used to locate SGBV in a
social, economic and political context that draws histories of entrenched inequalities in South
Africa into the present. The research findings reinforce a relational and constructed
understanding of gender emphasising that gender norms can be reconfigured and positively
transformed. We argue that this transformation can be catalysed through networked and
multidimensional strategies of collective action that engage the personal agency of men and
women and their interpersonal relationships at multiple levels and across boundaries of
social class, race and gender. This collectivity needs to be conscious of and engaged with
the structural inequalities that deeply influence trajectories of change. Citizens and civil
society must work with the institutions – political, religious, social and economic – that
reinforce structural violence in order to ensure their accountability in ending SGBV