This study draws on empirical evidence to examine theory on the critical question: "What is the impact of the English literacy curriculum on the lives of female adult learners?" I used the critical postmodernist and feminist lenses to examine the lived experiences of four Black African domestic workers and their journey through adult literacy. I used life history and autobiographical writings as the main methodological tools to uncover the biographical experiences of the learners. The postmodernist lens provided a framework to understand the changing identities and the complexities in the lived experiences of the learners. The critical and feminist theories provided the framework to understand the power relations and female oppression in a gendered society. Researching adult literacy in transforming, unstable and uncertain environments is methodologically complex and challenging. In these circumstances it is often serendipity that provides tools for discovery. Thus letter writing and 'in loco' visits into informal settlements provided me with thick description of the adult learners' life worlds, which would have otherwise been closed. In drawing up a literacy curriculum for adult learners the ‘in loco' visits became a vital source of information. A major impact of the adult literacy programme in this study is that it provided learners with a language of criticism, hope and one with which to analyse their social and material conditions. The narrative writing and class discussions gave learners the opportunity to reflect, to be critically conscious of their poverty, to act and dream of their emancipation. The autobiographies were voices for the voiceless learners, offering them a space to explore their feelings through story telling. The story telling opened up possibilities, which was not mere reflection but a complex process of making a difference in the world through diffraction. Autobiographical writing as a narrative form provided the discursive space for learners to become reflective, conscientized and intellectually emancipated. However, they were not always able to assert their empowerment, because of the dominant mediating factors such as economic power relations and socio-cultural contexts. Feminist and critical pedagogical approaches to mediating the curriculum can be emancipatory, in environments of poverty, oppression and powerlessness. Although learners attained critical consciousness and intellectual liberation, only two of the four were able to break the shackles of poverty. The English language created a triple bind for the adult female learners. The dominance of the English language in the global economy, has created demands on adult learners to acquire competency skills in English in order to function optimally in society. The hegemony of the English language led to discrimination, and created class stratification as well as social inclusion and exclusion for learners. They either felt alienated or accepted. This study showed that the dominant indigenous language within their own informal community also causes social inclusion and exclusion. The first dominant pull is that of the English language, the second is the dominant indigenous language from their own communities and finally they are caught with the need for their own language causing a threefold pull or push on the learners' identities, which I call a triple bind. The quest to acquire the dominant language also created schisms in the learners' identities. This research has shown that the chasm between policy intentions and implementation has not been bridged. The promises of equity, redress and social justice as enunciated in Adult Basic Education and Training (from here on referred to as ABET) policy documents are far from being realized. This study revealed that the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal placed too much emphasis merely on summative tests and certification and not on the needs of the adult learner. If adult education continues in the same direction there will be no good incentive to work towards a programme that has a direct impact on the lives of marginalized females in particular. The study suggests that ABET curriculum must be situationally relevant to make an impact on learners. The adult literacy curriculum should offer programmes for critical consciousness as well as vocational training for income generation. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2004.

Domestic workers are commonplace in South African society, with most middle to upper-class homes employing a domestic worker. Recently the area of domestic work in South Africa has gained much needed attention with regard to legal issues. Many domestic workers in the past and even currently, are exposed to exploitation and abuse in many forms. The main concern of this dissertation, however, is the woman that does the domestic work. Women have always been concerned with their bodies – the form and shape, dieting, clothes worn, amongst many other things. Although many may not think so, this concern has not escaped domestic workers. This group of women are extremely concerned with their dress and how their clothes and bodies are perceived by the public. This study addresses this issue paying close attention to the woman behind the uniform. Domestic workers often travel daily to get to their place of work. Commuting to work holds a sense of occasion for them, where, since they do not have much in the way of social lives, they dress up to travel to work. This dressing up is two-fold. Firstly the domestic workers in this study dressed up to impress others (especially other domestic workers) and improve their self-esteem. Secondly, their dress is linked to their past and their future aspirations, many of these women have aspired to become professionals in certain fields, but their goals had become unachievable due to their unfortunate circumstances. These issues are explored and discussed in the dissertation below, situated within the context of the domestic workers lives in South Africa, both during and after work. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-96).

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Open access. Includes bibliographical references (p. 210-229). Print copy also available.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-96) Also available in print.

Thesis (M. Hous. M.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 236-248). Also available on the Internet.

Bibliography: pages 269-280. / The focus of this thesis on African women's experiences as domestic workers results from the fact that the majority of women within the African population in Cape Town are employed in this sector of economy. Further, the African working class is in a peculiar position as a result of the strict enforcement of the Coloured Labour Preference Policy. This policy ensured the almost total exclusion of the African population from decent housing and education as well as employment. In fact, the policy has hamstrung almost every aspect of the African population's life. The Coloured Labour Preferential Policy was coupled with the strict enforcement of influx control, governed by the Urban Areas Act No. 25 of 1945 as amended. Worst hit by this law were the African women. An attempt was made to understand the experiences of African women both in and outside their work situation. The examination of their gendered experiences of 'race' and class divisions has led to the identification of a number of issues, among them poverty, exploitation as rightless workers and payment of low wages, fragmentation of family life and subordination in marriage relations, childcare problems, housing problems and isolation as mothers and workers. Further, their dreams, which include a wish for securing property, a secure family life and educating their children, as well as self-employment, are all indications of their deprivation and exploitation as women. In this thesis gender has been prioritised, as it emerged as the prime feature of African women's experiences of social divisions. Being a woman in a society divided by 'race' and class, has created hierarchies which carry unequal relationships between employer and employee and the payment of low wages. The privatised nature of this unequal relationship is the key to the oppression and exploitation of domestic workers. Moreover, the impact of the double day on African Women domestic workers has resulted in particular experiences of exploitation and oppression. Because of the limited material currently available on domestic workers, this study is seen as a contribution to the study of women as well as a contribution to a gender-sensitive, working class history of Cape Town. The selected literature that has been reviewed has left the gendered experiences of African women unexposed within their households. The focus has been on the work situation only. Failure to recognise or identify these gendered experiences within both class and 'race' divisions results in obscuring the daily struggles that African women face regarding housing, family life and childcare facilities. The review of the two commissions of enquiry, namely the Riekert and Wiehahn Commissions has shown that the State is still unresponsive to the needs of women as workers and in particular, as domestic workers. Riekert has tied the availability of housing to employment, thus excluding a large number of women in the Cape Town urban area.

Bibliography: pages 233-248. / This dissertation seeks to examine an area of South African historiography which has largely been ignored, that is, domestic labour. It posits a relationship between working class women, domestic labour paid and unpaid. The material has been arranged around the primary objective of examining the silence around domestic labour and highlighting the gender content of domestic work. It is divided into two parts. The first part examines the conceptualization of class and gender struggles, while the second part examines aspects of working class women's experience of this. Chapter One deals with why women have been ignored in recorded history; Chapter Two examines Marxist approaches to the Woman Question. Chapter Three examines the silence arourid women's experience in South African historiography, while Chapter Four is a critical examination of the recorded history of domestic workers. Chapter Five examines aspects of black working class women's experience of domestic labour in their own families, while Chapter Six documents the experience of a group of organized workers in Cape Town. The study concludes that the way forward is to develop a gender sensitive class analysis as outlined in the work of Lise Vogel. This will open up new areas for research, for example, the rise of the public and private dichotomy, the separation of productive and reproductive labour, the ideology of motherhood and sexuality as well as the changing nature of the social construction of gender identity.