This qualitative study explored and described the experience of African women diagnosed with both HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer in order to gain an understanding of the experience of both illnesses as lived by these women. Phenomenological research methods were employed using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Communication as a strategy facilitating diagnosis, disclosure, acceptance and support for women with HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer emerged as the main theme, followed by the experience of physical symptoms and emotional experiences. The study shows the importance of communication in the management and support of these women attending public health institutions and in the community. For communication to occur the relationship between healthcare professionals and women diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer is very important. Treatment approaches in radiation therapy need to be developed for women diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and cervical. More research is needed in this area (HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer). / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The core question that is addressed by this research is whether, and to what extent South African women’s NGOs contribute to enhancing state feminism through their ability to articulate and mobilise the strategic interests of women at grassroots level to appear on the national agenda, through the channels provided by the National Gender Machinery (structures of the state). A literature review was conducted that draws on the work of predominantly feminist authors in order to locate this research in previous scholarly knowledge that is relevant to the purpose of this study. The literature review includes elaboration of concepts like state feminism, women’s interests, agenda setting, civil society, and linkages between the women’s movement and the National Gender Machinery (NGM). A theoretical framework developed by Stetson and Mazur (1995), which aims at measuring whether gender machineries facilitate an increase in gender equality within the state, is used. The framework utilises two dimensions in order to investigate the level of state feminism within a country, i.e. state capacity, which investigates to what extent gender machineries influence and inform policy that is feminist and gender friendly; and state-society relations, which investigates the extent to which gender machineries provide opportunities for organised civil society actors (women’s organisations) to engage and access policy making and contribute to policy influence. In order to examine the levels of state capacity present in South Africa with regard to gender equality, current patterns of politics (a concept used by Stetson and Mazur) are considered. This is done in order to evaluate whether the political context is conducive to the passing and implementation of policy that is of a feminist nature. A qualitative study of the experience of four South African women’s NGOs, using face-to-face interviews specially designed for this purpose, was undertaken. The NGOs were interviewed in order to ascertain the status of state-society linkages, and whether the state provides access to civil society actors to inform policy making and implementation from a gender-friendly perspective that is reflective of grassroots women’s interests. The NGOs interviewed are the New Women’s Movement (NWM), the Women’s Legal Centre, the Black Sash and the International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG). The findings of the fieldwork are analysed according to the framework of Stetson and Mazur (1995) in order to formulate a response to the research question. Findings include the presence of state capacity that is hostile to gender issues, with minimal (unreceptive) efforts to engage society actors in a flourishing state-society relationship. The provision of unreceptive and inconsistent space provided by the state, the lack of commitment to gender by women working within the state, and the state of “decline” that many South African NGOs are facing, have led to a “blockage” in the articulation of gender issues by NGOs that emanates from grassroots level to inform policy making, and contributes to the institutionalisation of state feminism. The national levels have therefore been largely out of touch with the interests of women at grassroots level as a result of minimal engagement and communication through the (dysfunctional) NGM. The state has spoken on behalf of, and decided on behalf of, women what is best for them and their livelihoods. Instead of being a gateway to the institutionalisation of state feminism, the state has acted as a patriarchal entity and has, to a very large extent, further entrenched gender inequality and the hardships faced by ordinary South African women at grassroots level. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die kernvraag wat deur hierdie navorsing aangespreek word is of, en tot watter mate, Suid-Afrikaanse vroue se nie-regeringsorganisasies (NRO’s) bydra tot die verbreding van staatsfeminisme deur hul vermoë om die strategiese belange van vroue op voetsoolvlak te artikuleer sodat dit op die nasionale agenda deur die kanale wat deur die Nasionale Gender Masjinerie (NGM) (strukture in die staat) verskaf word, verskyn. ’n Literatuurstudie, wat die werk van hoofsaaklik feministiese outeurs aanhaal, is onderneem om hierdie navorsing binne vorige akademiese kennis wat relevant is tot die doel van hierdie studie, te plaas. Dit sluit bespreking van konsepte soos staatsfeminisme, vrouebelange, agenda-skepping, burgerlike samelewing, en verhoudings tussen die vrouebeweging en die NGM in. ’n Teoretiese raamwerk wat deur Stetson en Mazur (1995) ontwikkel is, wat ten doel het om vas te stel of gendermasjinerie ’n toename in geslagsgelykheid binne die staat fasiliteer, word gebruik. Die raamwerk gebruik twee dimensies om die vlak van staatsfeminisme in ’n land te ondersoek, naamlik staatskapsiteit, wat ondersoek tot watter mate gendermasjinerie beleid wat feministies en gender-vriendelik is, beïnvloed en inlig; en staat-samelewing verhoudinge, wat ondersoek instel na die mate waartoe gendermasjinerie geleenthede bied vir akteurs vanuit die georganiseerde burgerlike samelewing om toegang te kry tot en deel te neem aan die beleidmakings- en -implementeringsproses. Om die vlakke van staatskapasiteit t.o.v. geslagsgelykheid in Suid-Afrika te ontleed, word kontemporêre politieke patrone (’n konsep wat deur Stetson en Mazur gebruik word) gebruik. Dit word gedoen om vas te stel of die politieke konteks gunstig is vir die goedkeuring en implementering van beleid van ’n feministiese aard. ’n Kwalitatiewe studie van die ervaring van vier Suid-Afrikaanse NRO’s met behulp van aangesig-tot-aangesig onderhoude wat spesiaal vir hierdie doel ontwerp is, is onderneem. Die onderhoude is met die NRO’s gevoer om die status van staat-samelewing verhoudings vas te stel, en om te bepaal of die staat toegang verleen aan akteurs vanuit die burgerlike samelewing om beleidmakings- en -implementeringsprosesse vanuit ’n gender-vriendelike perspektief, wat die belange van vroue op voetsoolvlak reflekteer, te informeer. Die NRO’s waarmee onderhoude gevoer is, is die New Women’s Movement (NWM), die Women’s Legal Centre, die Black Sash en die International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG). Die bevindinge is volgens die raamwerk van Stetson en Mazur (1995) geanaliseer ten einde ’n antwoord op die navorsingsvraag te bied. Die bevindinge sluit in die aanwesigheid van staatskapasiteit wat vyandig gesind is teenoor gendersake, met minimale (nie-ontvanklike) pogings om akteurs vanuit die samelewing betrokke te kry in ’n florerende staat-samelewing verhouding. Die voorsiening van ’n nie-ontvanklike en nie-konsekwente ruimte deur die staat, die gebrek aan toewyding tot gendersake deur vroue wat binne die staat werk, en die toestand van agteruitgang wat baie Suid-Afrikaanse NRO’s in die gesig staar, het gelei tot ’n “blokkasie” in die artikulering van gendersake deur NRO’s, wat hul oorsprong het vanaf die voetsoolvlak om beleidmaking te informeer, en by te dra tot die institusionalisering van staatsfeminisme. Die nasionale vlak is dus baie uit voeling met die belange van vroue op voetsoolvlak a.g.v. minimale betrokkenheid en kommunikasie deur die (disfunksionele) NGM. Die staat praat en besluit namens vroue oor wat die beste vir hulle en hul bestaanswyses is. In stede van ’n poort te wees tot die institusionalisering van staatsfeminisme, tree die staat op as ’n patriargale entiteit en dra dit grootliks daartoe by om gender-ongelykheid en die swaarkry van gewone Suid-Afrikaanse vroue op voetsoolvlak verder te verskans.

This qualitative study explored and described the experience of African women diagnosed with both HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer in order to gain an understanding of the experience of both illnesses as lived by these women. Phenomenological research methods were employed using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Communication as a strategy facilitating diagnosis, disclosure, acceptance and support for women with HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer emerged as the main theme, followed by the experience of physical symptoms and emotional experiences. The study shows the importance of communication in the management and support of these women attending public health institutions and in the community. For communication to occur the relationship between healthcare professionals and women diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer is very important. Treatment approaches in radiation therapy need to be developed for women diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and cervical. More research is needed in this area (HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer). / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The study outlines five areas of intervention in the development of women studies and politics on the continent. Firstly, it examines the problematic construction and the inclusion of women in the narratives of the liberation struggle in South Africa. Secondly, the study identifies the sphere of intellectual debates as one of the crucial sites in the production of historical knowledge about the legacies of liberation struggles on the continent. Thirdly, it traces the intellectual trajectory of Charlotte Maxeke as an embodiment of the intellectual contributions of women in the struggle for liberation in South Africa. In this regard, the study traces Charlotte Maxeke as she deliberated and engaged on matters pertaining to the welfare of the Africans alongside the prominent intellectuals of the twentieth century. Fourthly, the study inaugurates a theoretical departure from the documentary trends that define contemporary studies on women and liberation movements on the continent. Fifthly, the study examines the incorporation of Maxeke's legacy of active intellectual engagement as an integral part of gender politics in the activities of the Women's Section of the African National Congress. In the areas identified, the study engages with the significance of the intellectual inputs of Charlotte Maxeke in South African history. / South Africa

Black women in historically challenged communities in South Africa carry the burden of triple oppression: (a) the social engineering policies synonymous with apartheid have marginalised women economically and socially, (b) patriarchy, embedded in cultural and religious discourses, has rendered women voiceless and powerless and (c) HIV/AIDS targets the most vulnerable: women and children. Not only are women carrying the brunt of HIV infections, but they also carry the extra burden of caring for the sick and the orphaned. The main aim of this research was to reach a holistic understanding of the untold stories of women in historically challenged communities, infected and/or affected by HIV/AIDS, and specifically about their experiences of care and the lack of care. The two secondary aims were: 1) to research alternative ways and means of making the unheard stories known in South African society; and 2) to disseminate research findings on the stories of these women in such a way that developmental policies could be influenced to enhance alternative, holistic stories of care in the South African society. A family of three women and a translator participated as co-researchers with the writer in this research experience. The researcher reflected on the research experience with volunteers from two home-based care programs in the community. The researcher uses drama as metaphor to document her ‘colourful’ research experience and to make sense of the many intricate and intertwined narratives and discourses, documented over a period of six months in her research diary, through recorded interviews, through her participation with the co-researchers and through the ethnography she had engaged in. The research experience has found that to be able to ‘care someone else into existence’; it is paramount that you as carer experience ‘empowering care’ yourself. ‘Empowering care’ is not possible if injustice prevails. This research experience challenges Government to investigate the ethical implications of the policy of placing the burden of care for the dying and the orphans on the shoulders of women in historically challenged communities. / Thesis (PhD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

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NOTE FROM THE LIBRARY: PLEASE CONTACT THE AUTHOR AT indisunflower@yahoo.com OR CONSULT THE LIBRARY FOR THE FULL TEXT OF THIS THESIS.... This thesis investigates the trajectory traced from Sarah Baartman, a Khoisan woman exploited in Europe during the nineteenth century, to a contemporary writing workshop with circumcised, immigrant West African women in Harlem New York by way of a selection of African women's memoirs. The selected African women's texts used in this work create a new testimony of speech, fragmenting a historically dominant Euro-American gaze on African women's bodies. The excerpts form a discursive space for reclaiming self and as well as a defiant challenge to Western porno-erotic voyeurism. The central premise of this thesis is that while investigating Eurocentric (a)historical narratives of Baartman, one finds an implicitly racist and sexist development of European language employed not solely with Baartman, but contemporaneously upon the bodies of Black women of Africa and its Diaspora, focusing predominantly on the "anomaly of their hypersexual" genitals. This particular language applied to the bodies of Black women extends into the discourse of Western feminist movements against African female circumcision in the 21st century. Nawal el Saadawi, Egyptian writer and activist and Aman, a Somali exile, write autobiographical texts which implode a western "silent/uninformed circumcised African woman" stereotype. It is through their documented life stories that these African women claim their bodies and articulate nationalist and cultural solidarity. This work shows that Western perceptions of Female Circumcision and African women will be juxtaposed with African women's perceptions of themselves. Ultimately, with the Nitiandika Writers Workshop in Harlem New York, the politicized outcome of the women who not only write their memoirs but claim a vibrant sexual (not mutilated or deficient) identity in partnership with their husbands, ask why Westerners are more interested in their genitals than how they are able to provide food, shelter and education for the their families, as immigrants to New York. The works of Saadawi, Aman and the Nitandika writers disrupt and ultimately destroy this trajectory of dehumanization through a direct movement from an assumed silence (about their bodies, their circumcisions and their status as women in Africa) to a directed, historically and culturally grounded "alter" speech of celebration and liberation. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil.(English)

1 online resource (viii, 155 leaves) / This study explores the ways in which female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa use their cellular phones, as well as their interests and needs in using this technology. The findings in this study are therefore crucial to the body of knowledge on programmes that seek to uplift women's lives through the deployment of ICTs, since current policies do not make full provision for the use of mobile phones in female entrepreneurship. Information on female entrepreneurs and cellular phones was collected in the literature review. The scrutiny of various literature sources and the analysis of the responses from the interviews with the female entrepreneurs were carried out to arrive at answers to the following research questions: 1. Can telecommunications (specifically, cellular phones) increase the participation of women in the economy? 2. What are the consumer habits of female entrepreneur cellular phone users in Zambia and South Africa? 3. Are the communication needs of business women in Zambia and South Africa adequately met? 4. What are the obstacles that female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa face in the use of cellular phones? 5. What are the similarities and differences in the consumer habits of female entrepreneur cellular phone users in Zambia and South Africa? In order to gather information on the consumer habits of female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa, a survey was conducted of 100 female entrepreneurs. The female entrepreneurs identified in this survey consist of female business owners with no more than 50 employees each, from Gauteng Province in South Africa, and Lusaka Province in Zambia. The female entrepreneurs were identified through the accidental sampling technique, and a structured questionnaire was used to collect information from them. The findings of the investigation reveal that cellular phones have the potential to increase the participation of women in mainstream economic activity, since they are a useful means of communication that allow women from diverse backgrounds to communicate easily for both business and social purposes. Accordingly, national policy-makers in South Africa and Zambia need to investigate further the potential of using cellular phone or similar technology to empower small-scale businesswomen. The investigation also shows that the cellular phone consumer habits of female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa differ when it comes to using cellular phones for business and social communication purposes. More Zambian women indicated that they use their cellular phones in business operations, while South African women showed a tendency to use their phones more for social purposes. The results of this investigation further illustrate that despite the importance in value which the mobile phone has for women entrepreneurs in both Zambia and South Africa, the communication needs of women's entrepreneurship are not adequately met. The main obstacles in meeting the communication needs of female entrepreneurs in Zambia and South Africa are inadequate network coverage and high prices. The study shows that a number of women (52,2%) indicated that they are inhibited from effective communication services and therefore resort to borrowing other people's mobile phones. The lack of empirical studies on the use of telecommunications by female entrepreneurs in both Zambia and South Africa attests to the fact that women's entrepreneurship is still an area that requires in-depth investigation. If various development efforts are to meet their targets, clearly the area of women's entrepreneurship and how various ICTs such as cellular phones are used therein needs urgent investigation. / Communication Sciences / M. A. (International Communication)

In view of the scarcity of Indian women in the South African art field, this study investigates how issues of race, class and gender can affect the decision to become and sustain a career as a professional artist. By exploring the historical background of the Indian community and their patriarchal mind set it becomes clear that women's roles in this community have always been prescribed by tradition and cultural values, despite western influence. Moreover the legacy of apartheid created a situation in which black artists, especially women. have not always benefitted in terms of career opportunities. The research is based on case studies of five Indian women who have received due recognition as artists: Lalitha Jawahirilal, Usha Seejarim, Sharlene Khan, Simmi Dullay and Reshma Chhiba. These artists' lives, careers and artistic output are closely studied, documented and critically interpreted using key concepts such as orientalism, black feminism and post colonialism. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

In view of the scarcity of Indian women in the South African art field, this study investigates how issues of race, class and gender can affect the decision to become and sustain a career as a professional artist. By exploring the historical background of the Indian community and their patriarchal mind set it becomes clear that women's roles in this community have always been prescribed by tradition and cultural values, despite western influence. Moreover the legacy of apartheid created a situation in which black artists, especially women. have not always benefitted in terms of career opportunities. The research is based on case studies of five Indian women who have received due recognition as artists: Lalitha Jawahirilal, Usha Seejarim, Sharlene Khan, Simmi Dullay and Reshma Chhiba. These artists' lives, careers and artistic output are closely studied, documented and critically interpreted using key concepts such as orientalism, black feminism and post colonialism. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Art History)