Includes bibliographical references. / Much research on economically-enforced migration between Zimbabwe and South Africa locates women as partners of men, rather than as economic agents in their own terms. Research on cross-border trade, however, has theorized that gender dynamics may empower women traders as they learn to negotiate new business networks and as they develop economic independence; a different perspective on gender dynamics suggests that far from empowerment, women cross border-traders face particular abuse and harassment. This research worked with eleven Zimbabwean cross border traders to explore the theoretical tensions between notions of ‘empowerment’ and notions of ‘disadvantage’ arising from the traders’ experiences. The study concentrated in particular on the traders’ representation of their experiences at the Zimbabwe/South Africa Beitbridge border post crossing point. Analysing the material qualitatively, the dissertation argues that while gender dynamics can be seen to afford the traders both opportunities and great challenges, the traders’ representations of the interplay of official corruption and the impact of economic pressure on all border-players reveal the border-post itself as a complex site of micro-negotiations whereby survival becomes the ‘business’ itself.

Bibliography: leaves 138-143.

Includes bibliographical references.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Previous research has provided promising evidence for the effectiveness of video interventions to raise awareness of the gender bias that exists in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. However, creating these beneficial video interventions can be costly and its possible that the success of these interventions may be hindered if a certain amount of resources are not invested into their creation (e.g., into high quality actors). Therefore, the current study expands on this research by investigating the use of personal testimonials of women’s experiences with gender bias in STEM as gender bias interventions. More specifically, I examined whether certain characteristics (e.g., genuineness) of the testimonial’s communicator would influence the relevant gender bias outcome (e.g., awareness of bias and sexism). I predicted that watching a woman genuinely talking about her experiences with bias, relative to a scripted re-telling of this story, would lead to better perceptions of the woman (e.g., more positive perceptions and perceptions of genuineness), greater feelings of empathy and connection with the woman, as well as less greater awareness of gender bias and less sexism from participants. To test this possibility, participants in the study were randomly assigned to interact with one of four story formats, a genuine telling of the woman’s experiences with bias, a scripted re-telling of these experiences, a written version of the story, or a unrelated control video. After interacting with the story participants then completed measures related to perceptions of the woman and gender bias. The findings of the study were limited, possibly due to a lack of power, but were encouraging as they were in the expected direction. The implications of the findings as well as future research ideas to expand and improve on these findings are discussed.

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the povoados of Nvava and Nangaze, in the district of Lugela, Zambézia Province, central Mozambique, consisted of field visits that started in June 2016 and ended in April 2018, this thesis is an ethnography of the relationships between people, spirits, animals and landscapes. It examines the cultural, scientific, ethical, and economic stakes of local modes of relating to Mount Mabo, the River Múgue and Mount Muriba that both abide by and surpass the exclusionary forms of science, nature conservation and governance that dominate environmentalism in Mozambique. Focusing on narratives and practices, the study explores concepts such as person, nature and time as mobilized by the state, conservationists and local residents, and describe the respective emerging worlds and their messy interconnections, namely, the conservationists' "Google Forest" premised on techno-science and modernist ideals and seeking to enact a divide between nature and society, the "Neo-extractive" version of landscapes promoted by the Frelimo-run state in its attempt to generate wealth and alleviate poverty also premised on techno-science and modernist ideals that construct nature as a natural resource and "public good" to be owned through DUATs (land use rights certificates) that only the state can grant or revoke; and finally, the "Secret Mount Mabo" as experienced and expressed by local residents whereby landscapes emerge as relational entities demanding ori'a (respect) from the humans with whom they engage in a relation of mutual belonging. In this world, the amwene emerge as the ones who control access to the mountain and forest through their ritual and spiritual power. The study finds that reframing of colonial and neoliberal notions of property, nature, labour and citizenry by conservationists and the state, underlies their technoscientific approaches seeking to protect nature from devastation and impose and their respective versions of nature, human and time—worlds—on local residents. That approach renders dialogues across ontologies extremely difficult. Working with local residents' concepts and practices the study proposes that Mount Mabo conservation efforts are at odds with local ontologies. While these are central to local residents and their practices of world-making, such ontologies occupy a marginal role in conservation project planning, design, and implementation, amid conservationists' attempts to mobilize local residents' alliance in nature protection. These observations draw from and reinterpret contemporary scholarship on political ecology, political ontology, Africanist thought, and decolonial theory, in that they account for different ecological practices and concepts that are linked to practices of wealth redistribution, recognition of other non-modernist ontologies and their colonial legacies. The study proposes that understanding and accounting for these differences and the ways they are made to endure or resisted could help in finding alternatives conducive to ensuring both ecological and local residents' wellbeing in ways that advance decoloniality in Mozambique.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to explore the question of poor representation of women in science and technology in two academic institutions of Rwanda. Those are the National University of Rwanda (UNR) and Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). By exploring institutional factors underlying the said question, the study has complemented previous works on the same subject, which placed an emphasis on social, economic and cultural factors. Data were collected through archival exploration, in-depth face-to-face interviews and focus groups discussions. Exploration of archives was mainly based on gender policies existing within the concerned institutions, and their compliance with Rwanda national gender policy. Access of women to science and technology, and their participation in these areas were the key elements that guided the exploration of relevant policies and various discussions with participants. In-depth interviews were conducted with men and women teachers at the concerned academic institutions and high government officials from the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, and Rwanda Parliament. Focus group interviews targeted men and women students from the third year level of study and above from the concerned areas. Discussed questions were given in an open-ended form. Through the exploration of existing policies and thematic analysis of qualitative data, the study revealed three main areas of gender inequalities. Those are decision making, infrastructure and academic cultures. It was found that the poor representation of women in decision-making affects the rest of these areas and their interconnectedness proved to be the key explaining the under-representation of women in science and technology. The study concludes that in the current form, the concerned institutions are embedded with forces that contribute to women's discrimination, especially in the areas of science and technology, which remain the preserve of men. It gives recommendations on how to address gender inequalities in the highlighted areas.

Bibliography: leaves 154-158. / The HIV/AIDS youth education organisation, loveLife, was examined to determine how its production of knowledge and values relates to transforming gender relations as they impact on HIV/AIDS in a South African context. The research originated out of a concern that loveLife, the world's largest HIV/AIDS youth education organisation in the world, was possibly replicating gendered inequities in its communication initiatives geared toward reducing transmission of HIV in the adolescent population. To carry out the research data was collected from three different "sites" and was analysed using discourse analysis. The approach to discourse analysis was informed by both Foucauldian and feminist theory. Furthermore, both the literature review and the primary data were informed by a social constructionist approach, in an attempt to recognise the environmental, social, structural, temporal and political impact on the constructions of AIDS, gender and sexuality by loveLife messages, staff and participants as they intersect with the lived realities of South African adolescents. All of the primary data is qualitative, and therefore, limited in scope. The research is experimental and iterative in nature and the data produced is varied. Nevertheless, it provides a useful snapshot with which to begin an examination of loveLife's production of knowledge and values. The data sites included: loveLife's second major print media campaign; interviews with loveLife staff and their volunteer youth corps, known as "groundBREAKERS"; and a focus group with participants at a loveLife youth centre. The print campaign included a series of five billboard advertisements and produced the most static of all the data examined. The interviews were conducted with five loveLife staff and four groundBREAKERS at loveLife's head office in Johannesburg and at a loveLife youth centre in Langa. Finally, the focus group consisted of three young men and two young women between the ages of 14-18 and was also conducted at the youth centre in Langa. The findings show that loveLife's constructions of gender are both narrow and problematic and often lose relevance when intersecting with the target audience as represented by the focus group. The findings also show that through its chosen strategy to promote loveLife as a brand, loveLife is producing a discourses that both homogenises its target audience and shifts the focus of the organisation away from transforming behaviour change as it relates to sex, sexuality and gender relations in an attempt to curb HIV transmission. Lastly, the findings also reveal that loveLife assumes that sexual choice is universally available to all South Africans. However, because this assumption does not reflect the lived realities of South African youth, particularly the realities of young women, loveLife ignores, and consequently, further replicates existing gendered inequities.

The aim of the study is to investigate gender relations in the production and export marketing of horticulture produce in Uganda. The study uses gender as an analytical tool in critiquing the Neoliberal reforms that advocate trade liberalization. This is done through examining the construction and perpetuation of unequal power relations within the tasks as well as access to production and market resources needed for effective participation in export trade. The study fills a gap in knowledge by providing an explanation of the factors that hinder effective participation of female and male tanners and traders. It reveals the failure of the assumptions of price, supply and demand as organizing principles in a market economy as those ignore the practices of politics and gender dynamics that shape the production and distribution of products for export trade. In order to reveal hidden control and influence of decisions, the study investigates the manifestation of power in the marketing channel at three sites: the household site (for production); the collection site (for purchase and assembling); and the exportation site (for export arrangements and air freight). Examples are given through a case study of female and male farmers, collectors and exporters of horticulture produce, in particular hot-pepper and okra, in Uganda. The unequal power relations that are examined, show how women and men create a hierarchical setting within the same site, as well as through the interactions they make by linking to the other sites. While female and male tanners require the tasks and resources provided by the collectors, collectors also need the resources given by exporters. Within such a context, this study, shows how gender analysis can be used to examine the dynamics of the relations between women and men who interact within tasks and resource acquisition between the different sites. The question of power therefore becomes a key concern as some categories of men, and sometimes women who are in positions of control of resources, have the "power to" influence decisions on allocation of tasks and acquisition of resources. Yet, such power to influence actions concerning who should perform the tasks and who can have access to resources, is so hidden that revealing it requires examination of its manifestations as well as the way its is exercised differently by men compared to women. Those practices, through which power manifests, create conflicts and hierarchical differences between tanners, collectors and exporters that show gender as well as status differences. Female collectors and exporters can manage to control resources, recognize these power practices, and react by resisting and manipulating them according to their own interests. Unfortunately, in most cases, both female and male tanners cannot challenge decisions of the exporters. Such dynamics create differential access to production and market resources. The characteristics that enable women as well as men to have influence are investigated in addition to what leads to the subordinate position that others experience. Gender theory is applied and focuses on two arguments: the extent to which men exercise power over women in ways that show how power relations are manifested through the gender division of labour and the way tasks are organised; and how power relations are manifested through different positions that women occupy compared to men in the different sites in ways that enable mostly men to have the power to influence decisions and command allocation of resources. Gender analysis is used as a methodology that enables examination of power practices that are hidden in the way tasks are organized and resources acquired in the different sites at a specified time period. Although these sites are self-contained, the findings indicate that actors also have opportunities to move across and between sites. The ability to participate in more than one site is therefore a means of rescue from practices that disempower women, thus hindering their participation in export trade. The findings do not only affirm the claims by gender critique of macro-economic theories that the markets are not abstract entities, but also provides examples that show how markets have a gendered structure. Women and men engage in relationships of cooperation, conflict and manipulate decisions of others who seek to access resources. Women who undertake activities in more than one site have power to make choices and influence decisions that would otherwise have had adverse effects on their export-oriented activities. Women who are able to access resources are sometimes those who exclude and exploit other women of lower status, just as higher-status men do to those below them. Such women decide to take actions not necessarily with an intention of resisting male dominance but to develop defensive and creative ways through which they can promote their own agenda. Some men of lower status resist actions of exploitation and exclusion imposed upon them by men of higher status. In addition, they can overcome the informality of labour provision and contracts that exist in trade relationships by becoming decision-makers themselves and dealing directly with export trade. This study therefore makes contributions to gender theory in ways that illustrate how gender analysis is an effective tool in investigating the construction of unequal power relations for export trade within an African setting.