Introduction: The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines overweight and obesity as a condition in which an abnormal or excessive fat accumulation exists to an extent in which health and well-being are impaired. The most recent South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (SANHANES) reported that the prevalence of overweight and obesity, according to body mass index (BMI) classification, in all South African women was significantly higher than in men (24.8% and 39.2% compared to 20.1% and 10.6% for women and men, respectively). Blood pressure is often increased in obese patients and is probably the most common co-morbidity associated with obesity. Currently approximately one third (30.4%) of the adult South African population has hypertension. Hypertension is responsible for a significant percentage of the high rates of cardiovascular disease and stroke in South Africa. Limited South African data are available regarding the agreement between the measures of adiposity, including BMI, waist circumference (WC) and percentage body fat (%BF), and the association with high blood pressure. Measures of adiposity were found in previous research to be ethnicity, age and gender specific. Measuring %BF to classify adiposity takes body composition into account and is a more physiological measurement of obesity than BMI. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the agreement between adiposity classified by BMI categories and %BF cut-off points, and the association between the different measures of adiposity and high blood pressure. Method: A representative sample of black women (n=435), aged 29 years to 65 years from Ikageng in the North West Province of South Africa were included in this cross-sectional epidemiological study. Socio-demographic questionnaires were completed. Pregnancy and HIV tests were performed and those with positive test results or those who declined HIV testing were excluded. Weight and height were measured and BMI was calculated. WC, %BF using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and blood pressure were measured. Results: The prevalence of overweight (BMI 25.0 kg/m² – 29.9 kg/m²) was 24.4% and obesity (BMI ≥ 30kg/m²) was 52.4%. High blood pressure was found to be present in more than two thirds of the study participants (68.5%). In this study BMI, WC and %BF as measures of adiposity were significantly correlated. There were significant agreements between combined overweight/obesity that was defined by %BF (≥35.8% 29-45 years; ≥37.7% ≥50 years) and BMI ≥ 25kg/m² (ᵡ²=199.0, p<0.0001; κ=0.68, p<0.0001), and between the presence of high %BF and obesity only, that was defined by BMI ≥ 30 kg/m² (ᵡ²=129.1, p<0.0001; κ=0.48, p<0.0001). The effect size of the agreement between the WHO BMI category for combined overweight/obesity and %BF cut-off points according to the kappa value of κ=0.68 was substantial (κ range 0.61-0.80). The effect size of the agreement between the WHO BMI category for obesity only and %BF cut-off points according to the kappa value of κ=0.48 was moderate (κ range 0.41-0.60). No association was found between high blood pressure and BMI categorised combined overweight/obesity (ᵡ²=3.19; p=0.74), but a significant association was found between high blood pressure and BMI categorised obesity only (ᵡ²=4.10; p=0.043). A significantly increased odds ratio (OR) of high blood pressure existed in the obesity BMI category (OR=1.52; p=0.045) as opposed to the overweight/obesity BMI category (OR=1.51; p=0.075). There were significant associations between high blood pressure and WC ≥ 80cm (ᵡ²=10.9; p=0.001; OR=2.08; p=0.001), WC ≥ 92cm (ᵡ²=20.1; p<0.0001; OR=1.79; p=0.011) and %BF above the age-specific cut-off points (ᵡ²=6.61; p=0.010; OR=1.70; p=0.011). Discussion and conclusion: This study found that in a sample of black urban South African women significant agreements existed between adiposity defined by %BF cut-off points for combined overweight/obesity and both WHO BMI categorised combined overweight/obesity (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2) and obesity only (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2), respectively. A stronger agreement was found between WHO categorised combined overweight/obesity and %BF. Furthermore, this study concluded that the BMI category according to the WHO cut-off point for overweight/obesity had insufficient sensitivity to detect the presence of high blood pressure, and that the BMI category according to the WHO cut-off point for obesity alone could detect the presence of high blood pressure. The WHO BMI classification for obesity, in contrast to the WHO BMI classification for combined overweight/obesity, is therefore appropriate to classify these black South African women at increased risk for high blood pressure. The WC and %BF cut-off points used which were specific to ethnicity, age and gender, had significant associations with high blood pressure and have good capacity to detect high blood pressure. In this study abdominal obesity as defined by the South African cut-off point of WC ≥ 92 cm had a stronger association with high blood pressure, than the international cut-off point (WC ≥ 80 cm). The South African cut-off point is, therefore, more appropriate to screen black South African women for increased risk for high blood pressure. The study therefore concluded that a stronger agreement was found between WHO categorised combined overweight/obesity and %BF than with obesity only (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2). To ensure consistency and accuracy, and to take body composition into consideration, it is recommended that, where possible, in clinical practice the appropriate WC and %BF cut-off points together with BMI categories should be used as measures of adiposity for diagnosis of overweight and obesity and to screen or detect an increased risk for high blood pressure. / MSc (Dietetics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Controlling images and negative stereotypes have had damaging effects on black men and women. The entertainment industry continues to play a vital role in perpetuating these historically damaging images to people all over the world. Early representations of black men and women within entertainment were performed by white men under the guise of blackface. These representations were offensive and inaccurate portrayals of black life. Early blackface minstrel performances of black women were performed by white men in blackface who were also cross-dressing. Their performances presented black women in stereotypical roles which have become a norm. Recently, there has been a phenomenon of black men cross-dressing as black women portraying negative stereotypes. These depictions done under the guise of comedy further perpetuate controlling images of black women to the world. This research examines how current and former displays of gender minstrelsy manipulate the image of Black womanhood.

The purpose of this study is to explore Black women’s experience of becoming and being entrepreneurs and accumulating wealth. Through interview questions that examine social capital, this study allows eight Black women to recall their ever-changing and evolving experience of entrepreneurship and economic mobility. This qualitative study goes beyond empirical data of the wealth gap and the numerical trends of Black women entrepreneurs. The study allowed for Black women to share their experience with wealth accumulation and the social factors, such as networks and relationships that attributed to starting and sustaining a business. Findings and implications will be discussed.

Relational aggression, behaviors that manipulate social relationships, is a pressing issue among Black college women (Dahlen, Czar, Prather, & Dyess, 2013). As a result of experiencing and using relational aggression, Black women may experience diminished interpersonal interactions and poorer overall psychological well-being (Gomes, Davis, Baker, & Servonsky, 2009). The present study examined how Black reality television (BRTV) models relationally aggressive behaviors for viewers. According to Cultivation theory, television has the power to influence the social reality (i.e. attitudes and perceptions) of individuals who consume high amounts of television (Gerbner et al, 2002), while Identification theory suggests that deep cognitive and emotional connection with a media character can lead to imitation (Cohen, 2001). Data was gathered from 93 Black college women through a survey measuring relational aggression, BRTV television consumption and media identification. Participants were randomly assigned a BRTV viewing condition (a non –aggressive BRTV or aggressive BRTV). Results indicated that aggressiveness of the BRTV program and continued exposure to BRTV did not significantly increase relational aggression over time. In contrast, relational aggression was found to significantly decrease across both viewing conditions. Regression analyses revealed that identification did not significantly mediate the relationship between continued exposure to BRTV and relational aggression. Implications and recommendations for future research on relational aggression among Black women were also examined.

Healing the Wounds of the Colonised Body: Writing Back in Twenty-first-century Works by British Caribbean Women Writers Thesis abstract Veronika Vítková Black women`s position within the world of male superiority and white supremacy came to be characterised by the term "double colonisation". Both patriarchal and imperial social order focused on their corporeality to justify their subjugation. Accordingly, black women writers came to conceptualise their experience of colonisation and slavery as wounds suffered by the black female body. They thereby use the master`s tools to dismantle the master`s house. Their "writing back" - a means of healing the body - constitutes a multi-level response to both sets of mythologies as well as other types of marginalisation and othering, which the two involved, such as sexual, territorial or discursive. It results in the construction of a complex space - a healing vision - which is not dissimilar to Homi Bhabha`s empowering theoretical concepts. However, while providing such progressive literary vision, black women writers also maintain connection with reality, where, as Gayatri Spivak argued, there is no space from where the subaltern sexed subject can speak. Their broad historical and geographical perspective, which is a product of the multi-levelness of their oppression,...

D.Phil. / The major part of what is known about women in leadership positions, and the challenges they are facing, is based on studies conducted in first-world countries. There clearly is a gap in the literature in terms of studies that focus on female leaders in Africa. Much has still to be said about the role that cultural practices and prejudices play in hampering the growth and progress of these women. This authentic study of a South African Zulu female manager provides a unique insight into the way she negotiated the challenges of climbing the corporate ladder in a male-dominated environment. Its postmodernist approach challenges the writer to use herself as a research subject while applying the principle of reflexivity in stepping back and analysing lived experiences from a researcher‟s perspective. In opening up her innermost feelings to the world, the researcher reveals who she really is, and how she, as a Zulu woman, wife, mother, and manager, negotiated her way between her own traditional culture and the Western corporate world. This creates real challenges to the researcher, as she has to keep sliding between being the subject and being the researcher at the same time. This narrative of "self" is recreated through interviewing people who had been part of the researcher‟s life during the period which was the focus of the study as well as the researcher recalling significant events. The research focuses on the challenges of being a minority leader in a South African workplace. The resistance to a black female as their superior by black males is highlighted, as is the manner in which these cultural prejudices result in discrimination against women by members of their own culture. The research also illuminates the impact of legislation aimed at transforming the local workplace and the leadership fraternity in a post-apartheid South Africa.

M.A. / This research report seeks to examine and analyse the role of recreation and leisure in improving the quality of life of women. The critical areas of poverty alleviation and the engendering of self sufficiency and empowerment through appropriate and goal directed programming and strategies will be investigated. Gender relations and hegemonies that govern women's choices will be critically explored with the assumption that women's participation and enjoyment of leisure are dependent on economic capacity and decision making freedom. The underlying aim of recreation is seen to provide an avenue for women to address these inequalities, find means to alleviate poverty, and learn skills for personal growth and enhancement of quality of life. The perceptions that women have of their leisure needs and the constraints to realising those needs are reflective of the amount of, freedom of choice that women are able to exercise. The relationship between freedom to experience leisure and social and ideological constraints to other social aspects of women's lives are important considerations. This research argues that lack of participation in recreational activities is indicative of a range of inequalities experienced by women. Data for this research has been collected from questionnaires and focus groups and contextualised within a feminist framework with a view to effect change in the understanding of recreation's role in the empowerment of women and the establishment of programmes that address inequalities and social problems.

Esta Dissertação de Mestrado pretende a partir de uma análise sobre a representatividade quantitativa e qualitativa dos mandatos das deputadas estaduais negras brasileiras, pensar as relações entre poder, gênero e raça em uma sociedade patriarcal. Para tanto, utilizaremos como amostra quatro mandatos de deputadas negras das Assembleias Legislativas dos estados da Bahia e São Paulo, durante o período de 2011 a 2014. O objetivo desta Dissertação é primeiro demonstrar que o cenário da democracia parlamentar brasileira mantém traços similares de gênero e raça que não coincidem com a real diversidade étnica/racial e de gênero que compõe a sociedade brasileira e em segundo, constatar que os mandatos das deputadas estaduais negras influenciam e resultam na implementação de mais políticas transversais que buscam a promoção da igualdade racial e de gênero e de combate ao racismo e ao sexismo / This Master\'s Dissertation intends to reflect upon the relationship between power, gender and race in a patriarchal society from an analysis of the quantitative and qualitative representativeness of the terms of the black female deputies from Brazilian states. To this end, we will use as a sample four terms of black female deputies of the Legislative Assemblies of the states of Bahia and São Paulo during the period from 2011 to 2014. The purpose of this dissertation is to first demonstrate that the setting of the Brazilian parliamentary democracy holds traits of gender race that are similar but that do not match the real ethnic/racial and gender diversity that makes up the Brazilian society, and secondly, to verify that the mandates of black female state deputies influence and result in the implementation of more crosscutting policies that seek to promote racial and gender equality and to fight racism and sexism

A análise desta tese foi centrada na relação entre raça e política, e considerou como seu objeto o ativismo feminista e de mulheres negras na criação da política de promoção de gênero e raça no município de Santo André, governado pelo PT, durante os anos de 1989 a 2005 O percurso da análise procurou responder em primeiro lugar à questão: por que, após a Conferência Durban em 2001, quando a questão racial ganhou destaque e reconhecimento nacional, o PT, ao conquistar a Presidência da República, criou um órgão, com status de ministério, para desenvolver a política de promoção da igualdade racial? Em segundo lugar, dentre os governos administrados pelo PT, em que medida a experiência de Santo André e a profissionalização política de ativistas negros foram relevantes na definição do modelo de política racial adotado em nível nacional? O desenvolvimento da tese compreendeu a análise da bibliografia sobre raça e política, dos documentos e relatos das ativistas feministas e de mulheres negras para confirmar, primeiro, que a confluência histórica entre a organização política da esquerda, o feminismo e o ativismo negro permitiu na região do grande ABC, em especial em Santo André, a emergência de uma experiência de política racial; em seguida, demonstrar que o alinhamento político do ativismo feminista e negro com a tendência hegemônica no PT foi uma potente estratégia para conquista de poder, cujos efeitos foram a mobilidade das ativistas, a sua institucionalização, a implementação da agenda racial e o fortalecimento eleitoral do PT. A tese conclui que o processo de redemocratização brasileira possibilitou a institucionalização dos ativistas dos movimentos sociais negros por meio da política de promoção da igualdade racial. No entanto, o posicionamento da temática racial no partido e em Santo André correspondeu não apenas ao ciclo organizacional do ativismo negro, mas também à estrutura de oportunidades políticas e restrições e à relevância dada à questão racial, configuradas na permeabilidade da estrutura partidária e do governo, especialmente nos períodos eleitorais. / The analysis of this thesis was focused on the relationship between race and politics, and considered as its object feminist and black women activism in the creation of a policy promoting gender and race in Santo André, governed by the PT during the years 1989 to 2005 The route of the first analysis sought to answer: Why, after Durban Conference in 2001, when the racial issue gained prominence and national recognition, PT, after winning presidential elections,, created a body with ministerial status to develop a policy promoting racial equality? Second, among the governments run by PT, to what extent the experience of Santo André and the professionalization of political black activists were relevant in defining the model of racial policy adopted at the national level? The development of the thesis included analysis of the literature on race and politics, the documents and reports of feminist activists and black women to confirm, first, that the historical confluence between the political left, feminism and black activism, allowed in the Region of Greater ABC, especially in Santo André, the emergence of an experience of racial politics, and secondly, to demonstrate that the political alignment of feminist and black activism with the hegemonic trend in PT, was a powerful strategy for gaining power, whose effects were the mobility of activists, their institutionalization, implementation of racial agenda and electoral strengthening of PT. The thesis concludes that the process of Brazilian democratization enabled the institutionalization of social black movement activists through a racial equality promotion policy. However, the positioning of the race issue in the party and in Santo André corresponded not only to the organizational cycle of black activism, but also to the structure of political opportunities and constraints, and relevancy given to the racial question, configured in the permeability of the party structure and the government, especially at election times.

Esta dissertação trata dos movimentos de resistência ao questionamento judicial acerca da validade do exercício profissional de professoras negras admitidas por meio de cotas raciais em um concurso público municipal realizado na cidade de Porto Alegre, no ano de 2005. A ação judicial, protagonizada pelo Tribunal de Contas do Rio Grande do Sul (TCE/RS), considerava a política de cotas inconstitucional. O estudo problematiza como estas mulheres negras, professoras e cotistas ressignificaram suas histórias de vida e de atuação docente a partir dessa experiência. Constitui-se no campo da pesquisa em Educação, com abordagem qualitativa, utilizando estratégias metodológicas como a entrevista compreensiva (KAUFFMANN, 2013) e a análise documental e se anuncia dentro dos princípios da pesquisa ativista (D’SOUZA, 2014). Opero com a categoria raça como fundamento do fenômeno em análise, destacando-o como expressão do racismo institucional. Simultaneamente, ressalto memórias da vivência desse racismo, contadas por seis mulheres capazes de agenciar e resistir, movidas pelas histórias de seus ancestrais, de seus familiares e dos grupos do movimento negro que a elas se uniram. Ressalto como conclusão parcial o fato de que essas mulheres deixaram uma marca negra por dentro da institucionalidade, criando brechas, rompendo barreiras, avançando e retrocedendo, garantindo uma política pública que se estende até hoje aos cidadãos porto-alegrenses. Este trabalho é fruto dessas marcas e objetiva sistematizar fragmentos das diversas possibilidades epistemológicas que as professoras negras cotistas proporcionam através de suas subjetividades desestabilizadoras (GOMES, 2017). / The dissertation deals with the movements of resistance to judicial questioning about the validity of the professional exercise of black teachers, admitted through racial quotas in municipal public tender held in the city of Porto Alegre, in the year of 2005. The lawsuit, starring by the Court of Auditors of Rio Grande do Sul (TCE/RS), considered the policy of quotas unconstitutional. The study problematizes as these black women, quota teachers, resignified their stories of life and teaching acting, from this experience. It constitutes in the field of research in education, with qualitative approach, using methodological strategies such as the comprehensive interview (KAUFFMANN, 2013) and the documentary analysis. It is advertised within the principles of activist research (D'SOUZA, 2014). It operates with the race category to understand the phenomenon under analysis, highlighting it as an expression of institutional racism. Simultaneously, it highlights memories of the experimentation of this racism, told by six women, capable of acting and resisting, driven by the stories of their ancestors, their families and the groups of the black movement that joined them. As a partial conclusion, the fact that these women left black marks within the institutional framework, creating gaps, breaking barriers, advancing and receding, guaranteeing a public policy that extends to the citizens of Porto Alegre. The work is tributary to these marks and systematizes fragments of the various epistemological possibilities constructed from the destabilizing subjectivities (GOMES, 2017) of black teachers.