Thesis (M.Econ.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 50-51). Also available in print.

Since 1994, the South African Government has formulated various policies in an attempt to redress the previous political, economic and social imbalances within the country. The majority of the policies have focused on empowering previously disadvantaged groups including people with disabilities. Despite the interventions, literature reviewed reflects that there is very little progress made with regard to empowerment of people with disabilities in the employment sector. The study seeks to explore and identify factors that affect people with visual disabilities in the employment sector. The researcher used a qualitative approach to investigate the perceptions of people with visual disabilities through conducting focus groups interviews with participants that were recruited using a purposive sampling approach. A total of four groups from Pretoria have been used to draw findings for the research study. During the focus group discussions, a semi structured interview guide was used to generate more in‐depth interpretations from the participants and data was analysed using Tesch’s (1990) framework that is described in Creswell (2003). The findings of the research revealed that people with visual disabilities still have problems in accessing and retaining employment despite the South African favourable legislation. Dominating among the factors that are viewed by the participants to hinder their employability are societal negatives attitudes which include unequal treatment, discrimination when they seek employment, belittling and disregard by employers, coworkers and the society at large. There are also a number of factors that were perceived as barriers to job seekers with visual disabilities which include inaccessible advertising media for vacancies, inaccessible transports systems, inaccessible education and training and lack of funded positions suited for people with visual disabilities.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1951 D4 / Master of Science

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1965 D26 / Master of Science

This work deals with sex discrimination in employment. It traces the origins of discrimination and considers the meaning of equality and the role which the law can play in attaining equality in the work place. International and regional norms, as well as the British and American legal systems, are analysed. The position in South Africa is then considered against that background, and reforms are proposed. These include the formulation of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation which draws upon the American and British systems, but is adapted to suit local needs. The establishment of an independent administrative body to monitor the legislation, as well as a specialised judicial body through which the legislation is to be enforced, is also proposed. / School of Law / Thesis (LL.D.)--University of South Africa, 1992.

Legislative changes in the 1980s and 1990s have meant that non-state pensions are becoming increasingly important in pension provision in Britain. The introduction of Approved Personal Pension Plans (APPS) as a legal second-tier pension option has meant that potential pension alternatives have increased and now consist of SERPS, occupational pension schemes and APPS. These alternatives are not, however, similarly beneficial. Occupational pensions are usually by far the better option. It is precisely because women have been disadvantaged in occupational pensions in the past that so many older women live in poverty today. Using secondary analysis of the General Household Survey for 1988-90 the research shows that women of employable age are less likely to have occupational pensions or personal pension plans than men and this is largely because of the impact of childcare responsibilities on their labour market positions. However, the generally disadvantaged position of women in the labour market means even women without caring responsibilities are disadvantaged in pension welfare. In addition the research demonstrates that differences among women in relation to labour market variables as well as ethnicity, marital status and child dependency status means that women cannot be treated as an homogeneously disadvantaged group, and consequently some women are more disadvantaged than others in their pension provision. Interviews with 45 women aged 40-59 reveal that, for the women interviewed, although most women wanted an independent pension income, many could not afford, or were ineligible for, their desired schemes. The research also shows that married women cannot, even if they wanted to, rely on husbands for financial welfare in pensionable years as a polarisation of couples between those where both have a pension and where neither has a pension means that women are less likely to have a pension if their husband does not have a non-state pension. The research concludes that women's poverty in older age will increase, as concentration on non-state pension provision means that women will be increasingly disadvantaged.

As the higher education system expanded during the 1980s and early 1990s increasing numbers of mature women undertook the transition to graduate life. Such women also have a potentially prominent role as employees in the labour market of the mid-1990s in which the workforce is described as both feminised and "greying". Yet the dominant framework of research on the transition of graduates to the labour market, despite its recognition of the influence of structural factors of difference among graduates, has paid scant attention to the experiences of mature female graduates. This study begins the process of redressing that situation by adding both quantitative and qualitative data on the labour market outcomes of becoming a mature female graduate. The study's methodology is informed by feminist critiques of mainstream social research, and a central concern is to prioritise the perspectives of participants. The 137 women whose voices are represented in this dissertation entered first degree study on non-vocational courses, full or part-time, at or above the age of 21. They graduated from the University of Wolverhampton in 1994 and 1995. From their perspectives the transition entails considerably wider questions than those posed directly in relation to employment. Rather, the issues involve a complex interrelationship between structural and situational factors and the graduates' responses to these. Therefore the scope of the study incorporates questions of agency, understood as an aspect of identity. Escape, resilience, adaptation and marginality are core features of the findings connecting the three alternative forms of analysis presented. In these the graduates are first viewed collectively, then re-grouped in accordance with issues of age, gender, social class and ethnicity, and, finally, removed from categories in order to explore issues of identity and diversity. These analyses are then argued to be complementary perspectives that illustrate a possibility of moving beyond dichotomous approaches to understanding women's lives. The study concludes that the composite mature female graduate, Educated Rita, may be located and identified by addressing questions of structure and agency, similarity and difference, and that she considers the transition to be one in which she moves on

published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Master / Master of Economics

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