According to Mama, the journal was created partly in response to a bias in existing scholarship towards the "Women In Development" (WID) perspective. Particular topics covered by the journal include: women's activism, sexism in higher education, militarism and peace, and gender-related violence. Patricia van der Spuy and Lindsay Clowes write that the publication of the journal marked an important step in the development of South African feminism. Iris Berger has critiqued the journal (as an indicator of contemporary African feminism in general) for leaving out colonial and precolonial African women's history.
