WHO IS FELICITY
Felicity An Guest is an expert on Coercive Control Abuse,
an internationally accredited Financial Abuse Specialist.
a recipient of a Human Rights Award and Ackermans Face of Change. Felicity is a regular expert speaker on radio, television and print media with anything to do with child maintenance or financial abuse.
She contributed to the 2021 State Of South Africa's Fathers Report and and Survivor, The Make of a Woman and the Gender Based Violence and Femicide National Strategic Plan
(GBVF NSP).
​
Through her work, Felicity creates awareness to the systemic inequalities and marginalisation of women and advocates for social justice and the economic protection of women and children. She regularly contributes to policy and law reform, she has worked with The Department of Women, Youth and Persons living with Disabilities, presented at The Department of Justice Maintenance Working Session, presented at the National Prosecuting Authority Maintenance Community Dialogues and many others.
​
Her heart is in community engagement, empowering women to actively pursue child support. An important objective is to bring economic and financial abuse into mainstream awareness alongside all other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) .
​
Felicity offers Gender Based Violence workshops and trainings for corporates and assistance with developing a comprehensive workplace policy not only on harassment in the workplace but for employees who are victims of domestic violence. In addition she is engaging with the banking sector to help develop and implement a client vulnerability policy to meet international best practice standards.
Through one on one coaching, speaking engagements and providing women with various online resources and support, Felicity has walked the journey and empowered hundreds of mothers and some fathers to attain financial security and to recover from abuse.
​
Felicity An Guest strives to create a more equitable and just society, greater active citizenry by women who experience economic and financial abuse are heard.
Her vision is that women and children are elevated from economic hardship, poverty and vulnerability to domestic violence to living in a more equitable and just society free of domestic abuse.
“My vision is for women to live in a world where women are safe, there is equity and equality and women can take up space and use their voices and femininity to bring balance to the world.”
Felicity An Guest
ECONOMIC ABUSE
My self-education on economic and financial abuse began when I started using social media to create awareness around the challenges women faced getting maintenance for their children, it was a natural transition into advocacy and activism. I became an ardent researcher; I needed to verify the patterns, elements and trends I was noticing.
​
I educated myself on the Maintenance Act, the Bill of
Rights, the Children’s Act. The Department of Justice, their NSP’s, their annual reports, portfolio committee meetings, precedents in the Constitutional court, Appeal Court and High Court to do with maintenance and economic abuse.
I researched poverty, including historic political influences, economic abuse and gender-based violence and my observations of all the intersections were affirmed. The most researched and documented form of economic and financial abuse is within a relationship; it is a major contributing factor to why women stay in an abusive relationship. It was my logical conclusion that economic and financial abuse does not cease when they do eventually leave - it changes to Post Relationship Abuse.
​
What was startling was that there was no advocacy; there was nobody else seeing what I was seeing. There are anecdotal references and research on specific aspects and some intersections but not an overarching understanding of the magnitude and intersections. Sadly I am the only person who advocates against financial abuse post-relationship through the maintenance lens in South Africa, and for a long time globally.
​
The unanimous opinions of the higher courts are that the maintenance courts are legally mandated and structured to deal specifically with maintenance. Unless one can afford legal representation and even then one seldom gets justice in the maintenance courts. The department is under-resourced and the staff are disinterested, under-trained and don’t correctly enforce the Maintenance Act to the detriment of women and children's well being.
There is little understanding of the intersections and dire impacts that the dysfunctional maintenance courts has on our most vulnerable. For too long the economic inequality and economic oppression of women has been normalised, for too long the financial responsibility has been carried by the mother and that has to change.
​
​
“It is a universal law that when a pebble is thrown into a pond it will ripple; my pebble has made many ripples and my request to other people is "pick up a peddle and throw it into a pond and watch your ripples, that all our ripples intersect and that we change the world.”
Felicity An Guest
MISSION
To create awareness around coercive controlling behaviour, the immense harm caused by money being used as a tool to reward and punish victims. This is achieved through social media, workshops, community outreach programs, corporate engagement and commitment to creating safer work spaces and more support for employees who are victims of economic abuse.
Reducing vulnerability through proper risk assessments and victim centered and focused policy by the family courts to protect our vulnerable women and children, which will help victims stabilize and recover from domestic abuse.
To bring about social and structural change and a more equal and just society.
GOALS
-
Empower women with knowledge to assert the legal requirements of both parents being responsible to financially support their children
-
Change the inherent socialisation of mothers bearing the bulk of the responsibility of child-rearing
-
From marginalisation and complacency to active citizenry
-
Acknowledge unpaid, invisible labour in the home performed by mothers and sacrifices made.
-
Normalise gender based violence awareness, protection and prevention in the world of work
-
Mainstream covert forms of domestic violence
-
Accountability by all stakeholders
