Women of various origins played a vital role in fighting the white "Afrikaner" nationalist minority regime's harsh apartheid policies. On August 9, 1956, a massive march of up to 20,000 women protested the introduction of key apartheid policies that would have disproportionately impacted women.
In the 1980s, apartheid's tactic shifted from overt incarceration and imprisonment of anti-apartheid activists to the increased employment of clandestine death squads, which assassinated, abducted, tortured, and murdered dissidents, including women. An scholar from South Africa and an author The newly formed Federation of South African Women brought together women of all races to fight for equality. The federation started in a tiny town but swiftly spread across the country, organizing on the streets and in labor unions. These grassroots movements spawned a slew of smaller protests, culminating in the women's march on Pretoria, South Africa's capital, in 1956. As a result, Nelson Mandela, the world's most recognized leader, began the struggle against apartheid and eventually became a symbol of the anti-apartheid campaign. People denounced this conduct in the name of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM). White South Africans controlled the state and the economy. Finally, disheartened by the lack of results from their peaceful fight and armed insurgency, a concrete grassroots civil resistance movement with international support and penalties pushed the white administration to negotiate.