Over the last few years there has been a escalation of interest in the study of femineity and women. The term "men" is used as an unmarked omnipresent category to symbolise humanity in general. Over the last two decades feminists have challenged the ideological and material requirements of such definite male bias. Feminists have built their position on the notion of 'the personal is political", feminists have raised a number of questions regarding the status quo in society. In this dissertation, the researcher does not aim to fill a descriptive void, but to demonstrate the theories and approaches to gender as well as suggest further areas for research. In the introduction, the researcher examines the wider academic background to the study as well as raising intellectual and political issues raised by feminists and postmodern theory. A basic axiom is that new intuition into social relations follow the investigation of cultural categories that have previously been taken for granted. The chapter on India draws attention to the ways in which femininity produced within the Chipko movement impinged on the relations between colonizer and colonized. The indigenous notions of gendered difference are constantly created and transformed in everyday interactions. Relations of power are constituent parts of these interactions. This experience is never comprehensive, hence it changes over time and space. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1998.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2001.

A report on a research study presented to the Department of Social Work School of Human and Community Development, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirement for a degree Master of Arts in Social Work, March 2017 / This research report explores how male Wits university students, who are actively involved in SASCO, a student organisation that advocates for amongst other things, none sexist society, perceive gender transformation and equality. The research approach utilised was qualitative and exploratory in nature with a broad aim of explaining the perceptions of the male students. Informal interaction and semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with ten male student activists and a key informant as methods of data collection. The data, in the form of interview transcripts was than analysed using the IPA approach. Although the participant’s perceptions of gender transformation and equality varied, it was evident, however, that all of the participants agreed that women have been previously and currently disadvantaged in society. The main findings that show the concepts of gender transformation and equality are much more digestible on paper and policies but difficult to implement. It becomes unreasonable to aspect individuals when they get into institutions of higher learning to now unlearn patriarchy and disown patriarchal privileges and benefits that they have enjoyed for most of the lives. The introduction of sustainable gender transformation and equality needs a complete overhaul of gendered societies and societal injustices. Gender injustices should be afforded the same attention that is given to economic inequalities, access to education and political instabilities. / XL2018

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Sociology), 2016 / This research contributes to an understanding of how female mineworkers make sense of themselves and how gender identities are constructed in mining. Mine work has for a long time been seen as allowing for particular masculine self-formations and mineworkers embodying specific mining masculine subjectivities. The entrance of women in South African mines from 2004 and their allocation into occupations that were previously exclusively reserved for men is a significant challenge and a disruption to masculine subjectivities and the occupational culture. This thesis illustrates what transpires when socially constructed gender boundaries are crossed. This is what the women are doing with their entry into underground mining. For ten and a half months, between 2011 and 2012 I worked in the mines and lived with mineworkers. During this period I completely submerged myself into the life world of mine workers to get an in-depth understanding of the ways female mineworkers understand themselves and navigate the masculine mining world. I managed to get the subtle, nuanced, instantaneous and unnoticeable ways which produce and reproduce the fluid and contested gender identities. Drawing on insights from a range of feminist theorists and feminist readings of theories I argue that the construction of gendered identities in mining is an ongoing embodied performative process which is articulated in fluid ways in different mining spaces within certain structural, relational and historical constraints. The thesis presents a typology outlining four categories of femininities; mafazi, money makers, real mafazi and madoda straight, that are performed and produced underground by women mineworkers. At home these performances are unstable and disrupted as women attempt to reconcile their role as mothers, wives and their workplace 2 identities as underground miners with their notions of femininity. This necessitates a renegotiation of gender ideologies, performances and identities. In this thesis I succinctly present the fluid, multiple, contradictory and contested processes involved in constructing gendered identities; above ground, underground, and at home. Drawing from this evidence I conclude that women do not approach the workplace or labour process as empty vessels or act as cogs-in the mining machines but are active agents in the construction of their gender identities. The key elements I use to analyse gendered identities are; gendered spaces, embodiment, social and material bodies (as sites of control, resistance and agency) and performativity. I argue that all of these converge and are central to the construction of gendered identities. Key Words: Women in mining, gendered identities, subjectivities, femininities, masculinities, gender performances, embodiment, gendered spaces, gender transformation. / GR2017

The research was submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johanneburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Drama Arts / This research explores the tension between women’s personal wellbeing, expectations and desires and the expectations imposed by cultural practices, customs, beliefs and norms. We know that there are harmful traditional cultural practices which violate the rights of women and that policies and legislative instruments have been put in place to outlaw these practices. Examples of such practices in South Africa include marriage by abduction, child marriages and virginity testing (Wadesango, et al., 2009). So far, the nature of interventions that deal with women’s rights in rural South African communities tends to focus on advocacy and education, but fail to recognize the existence of intergenerational conflict among women. This conflict compromises the ability for interventions focusing on women’s rights to have sustainable impact on the community and gives opportunity for further violation of women’s rights through harmful traditional cultural practices. This study demonstrates and offers the use of Story, in Applied Theatre and Drama (Chinyowa, (2001), Fox (2006), Mutwa, (1965), as a tool to engage women on traditional cultural practices which violate their rights. It takes a Generational Approach (Howe and Strauss, 2007) to understanding the underlying causes of the continuation of such practices by engaging with the personal narratives of an intergenerational group of women from Ntoane Village, Limpopo, South Africa. Using Narrative Inquiry (Hinchman & Hinchman, 1997), Reflective Practice (Schon, 1987) and Narrative Practice (Gubrium and Holstein1998) in partnership with Story, women from Generation X and Y cohorts embarked on a four-day process which revealed how the characteristics and behavioural patterns of each generation impact and determine the positioning of women in the community and ultimately women’s experiences of traditional cultural practices. The research findings suggest that applying a Generational Approach to social development processes in rural South African communities, as it proves in this research, may contribute to the sustainability of sociological interventions in such environments. / NG (2020)

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for PhD: Management Sciences , Durban University of Technology. Durban. South Africa, 2015. / The history of South Africa has many scars of oppression and women have long experienced a disempowered position in society. It is also a history of intrepid efforts to emancipate South Africans from past afflictions. Media in South Africa played a key role in amplifying the apartheid regime and also overthrowing it. Media has significant power, is regarded as a bastion of freedom and nation building, and by means of its representation, contributes to our individual and social identities. Magazine media, in particular, are modern and popular cultural forms of representation. It is a significant force in South African culture and plays a central role in shaping public opinion on women. South Africa has a deep-rooted patriarchal value system and while advances can be commended, significant challenges persist. Despite women actively engaging in various aspects of society, from business to sport, they continue to receive marginal support and media attention. Stereotypical representations abound in magazine content and women are often sexualised and objectified in traditionally feminine, decorative roles and framed by their social positions as homemakers and non-professionals. This study explores magazines’ representation of women and the influence on identity construction. The connected landscapes of media’s production and consumption practices is also addressed, as there is a powerful interplay of how the economics of publishing significantly shape media content. This study proposes a model that contributes to promoting diversity in media content, ownership and control, critical citizenry and media accountability in terms of social change and gender equality. The qualitative methodological approach addresses the issue of objectification of women in editorial content and advertisements of two of South Africa’s leading consumer magazines, YOU and DRUM. The findings reveal that gender stereotypes thrive in magazine texts that repeatedly represent women as objects for male consumption, thereby not reflecting the diverse and progressive roles of modern day women. Magazine media can play a powerful role in helping to dislodge the patriarchal, public attitudes towards women. Diversified, equitable representation of gender in media is important so that it may demonstrate, and influence, society’s shift towards egalitarian principles. This study serves as a catalyst for change by building a knowledge base and raising awareness regarding magazines’ role in identity construction, by advocating gender issues and by contributing to gender parity in and through the media. / D

Thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree: Master of Architecture (Professional) to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2016 / Hyperembodiment is an approach to negotiating the interface between spaces for women (in Johannesburg’s inner-city) and jewellery as a connector of the body – especially for women – to place. The inner-city, a space that is male-dominated and where women are present but seem to be largely excluded, or to feel unsafe and vulnerable - especially because of what the female body represents in an ‘unsafe’ male space, is also full of vibrancy and activity and has the potential for a positive and radical cultural change, but remains disconnected, nonprogressive and stagnant in thinking as well as non-inclusive of all people. The spatial investigations into places for women (modern feminist spatial concepts) and jewellery as a ‘site’ or interface between the body and architecture, and the interesting parallels it draws between feminist views, space, psychology and the body (process and development of body adornment and jewellery theories), are powerful ways of thinking about space that could suggest an appropriate architectural approach that could realign both spaces for women, a modern approach to the act of making, and creative jewellery practices in Johannesburg. The spatial connotations of the word ‘hyper’ is something that is ‘very’, ‘beyond’, or ‘very active’ and those of the word ‘embodiment’ is something ‘embodying’, ‘representing’ or ‘expressing’ a space. The compound word ‘Hyperembodiment’ used here means beyond embodiment, or very actively personifying a space and its innate properties of land, earth, materials, and the bodies (people) in it. It is also all the layers of embodiment – physical, historical, social layers – that are collaged together in one time and in one space to create a high-intensity and complex expression of place. Jewellery as a connector; for the body and for woman to place, would be these collaged layers made into a physical object and symbol made from the materials, earth, historical and social layers. It is a simultaneous case of the wearer embodying the place, and the place embodying the wearer. / MT2017

The emergence of a South African womanist (Black) consciousness was investigated. More specifically, the present study examined how the politics of survival gives rise to a feminist consciousness. A meta-analysis of 8 case studies was conducted on how (South) African women's daily struggle for survival in three socio-political and historical contexts translated into a womanist consciousness. Of the 8 case studies examined. 2 pertained to (South) African women's involvement in the national liberation struggle, 3 pertained to the migrant labor system, and the remaining three pertained to the struggie against poverty as a context for the emergence of a womanist consciousness. It was found that women's involvement in the national liberation struggle, the migrant labor system, and the struggle against poverty provided a context in which (South) African women learned about their feminism. The results suggest that the new Black feminism that is slowly emerging on the African continent is rooted in the politics of survival. Also, the findings from the study suggest that the current state of African women's engagement with feminism is one of two extremes. On the one hand, women are individually advancing themselves and on the other women are collectively/politically organizing for the good of all women. The implication of the findings are that (poor) African women's daily struggle for survival leads them (through their actions) to engage with feminism. This in turn sets the stage for an emerging African womanist consciousness. Furthennore, the results of this study imply that in order for the newly emerging Black feminism to grow and make a meaningful contribution in the lives of all, African women need to engage with feminism at a collective, and not just individual level. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

The study-consisted of a survey questioning the respondents perceived social problems and issues facing women. The questionnaire was given to both Indian and African college students in Durban, South Africa. It was hypothesized that the Indian women would fit Rossi's Assimilationist Model of feminism. This was supported. It was also predicted that Assimilationist feminists would be more likely to name a women's issue when questioned about social problems. The opposite was found to be true. A much stronger relationship was found when race was used instead of the feminist model. Africans were much more likely to name women's issues with regard to family interpersonal relationships when questioned about social problems than were the Indian women. The latter listed structural issues such as poverty and race relations. One explanation could be that family issues are much more salient for Africans and structural issues are important to Indian women. / Department of Sociology

It is argued that South African feminism in the 1990's risks sabotaging itself as a movement and as a form of social critique because it has (1) not completely eradicated key positivist elements from its ontology and epistemology; (2) inadequately examined a crucial issue in an emancipatory social science, namely power; (3) increasingly opted for relativist and pragmatist perspectives in theorising women's oppression and social transformation. It is further argued that the over-reliance on relativism, standpoint theory and pragmatism is problematic for contemporary feminism. As an alternative, Bhaskar's transformational analysis of power in combination with an anti-racist feminism and social psychology is used to provide a robust framework within which complex social issues may be addressed. In this study, 16 female participants were interviewed about their experiences of living in an impoverished township. Themes identified in the data suggested that the theoretical perspectives used in the study provided insights into the subtleties and complexities of the operation of power in society. These insights enabled productive understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of development initiatives and political decision-making processes in the community, and the survival strategies of its women. It is hoped that research work of this sort could make a real contribution to the ongoing women's emancipation struggle in Port Alfred and similar communities.