This research report set out to provide an evaluation of the progress made by the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development with respect to affirmative action and employment equity, and particularly with respect to the promotion of greater gender equity in employment, especially at the management levels.

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Mini-dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Public Management In the Faculty of Business at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology 2013 / One of the post 1994 Government foremost tasks has been to transform the Public Service into an efficient and effective instrument capable of delivering equitable service to all citizens and driving the country’s economic and social development. Towards this end a number of legislative and policy changes were made which saw the emergence of a new public administration paradigm, both in terms of how Public service are to be managed and how they are to be delivered to the public. This was particularly relevant to the equality status of women on all levels of the public service in South Africa and the Western in particular. Transformation in the Western Cape Administration and in the two departments in particular will not advance enough to benefit the majority of the Populace adequately, unless individuals from the designated groups are largely employed in positions with authority and with real decision-making powers. Males will continue to dominate in the middle to upper levels as long as the leadership is caught up with the vicious cycle of continuing to employ people with mainly the same race and gender profile in the two departments in the Provincial government of the Western Cape. Therefore, it is critical for the Western Cape government to align their employment equity interventions, including skills and succession planning, with its employment equity objectives. Commitment by the leadership of the Western Cape Province to effectively implement the Act in substance and spirit is likely to assist transformation by creating workplaces that are equitable in nature and free from discrimination. This Mini- dissertation provides insight into the historical and current situations of women in the Western Cape and the departments of local government and human settlement in particular and ventures to make a number of recommendations to improve the status of women in the administration of the Western Cape government.

The Government of South Africa has placed a lot of emphasis on economic growth and the involvement of Black people in the mainstream of the economy. The implementation of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) created opportunities for direct empowerment of Black females in ownership and management. The Construction Industry is being challenged to increase the number of Black females in management and ownership levels. Due to the nature of the Industry, only a small population of females considers Construction as a career option. The Industry has also lost a significant number of skilled Engineers and is experiencing a shortage of skilled managers in Middle and Senior Management Levels. The research problem questioned the current state of empowerment for Black women in the Construction Industry as measured against the B-BBEE Scorecard. The literature review focused on the requirements of the B-BBEE scorecard and Construction Charter. The second phase focused on gender equality and the achievements of women in Construction. The research design was done by using questionnaires to the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec) members in the Eastern Cape. The research design and survey aimed to determine the status of empowerment in the Construction Industry. With reference to both the literature review and the empirical findings the state of female empowerment can be determined. Therefore iv recommendations and opportunities for further research in this regard can be identified.

The role that women play in the economy of any society is a desirable goal for equity and efficiency considerations. Just as with the rest of the world, the South African women lagged behind their male counterparts within the economic empowerment space and in the formal labour force. However, the role of women has undergone some transformations with issues relating to employment opportunities, such that their labour force participation has risen considerably since 1994. The female labour force participation rate is still seen to be persistently lower compared to the male participation rate even in the second decade of democracy. The rate of women labour force participation is even lower than the average. On the other hand, the increases have also been coupled with the rising rate of unemployment among women. The objective of this study was to investigate the determinants of female labour force participation in the South African labour market. The study uses a regression analysis on a cross sectional panel data covering a period of 1995 to 2010. Unlike most popular beliefs, the findings of this study reveal that fertility though not statistically significant, positively influences labour force participation of women. Other variables that are statistically significant in explaining female labour force are HIV/AIDS, marital status, age, household income and education. Race was found to be insignificant in explaining female labour force participation in the South African labour force.

Social Work / M.A. Social Science (Mental Health)

In contemporary society, work and home represent the two most significant domains in the life of working individuals. South Africa’s socioeconomic, political, and societal circumstances will influence employees’ experiences of work-life balance differently, compared to that of employees in other countries, suggesting that the construction of work-life balance amongst different race and cultural groups may differ. The present study used in-depth qualitative interviews with ten black women and men employed in a customer care environment, to explore their construction of work-life balance. A grounded theory approach was used to analyse the data and identify themes. This study suggests that work-life balance is a unique experience for individuals, which varies over time and in different situations. The study confirmed that attaining work-life balance is a process of balancing ever-changing experiences over time, and in different life stages. The results of this study are also discussed in relation to the relevant literature. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

In modern South African society, many women have overcome traditional notions of gender by becoming breadwinners in their homes and providing primary financial support for their families. Employing a Phenomenological Feminist viewpoint, this dissertation contextualises the meaning that South African female breadwinners (FBW) ascribe to their experiences within their lived environment, utilising data collected from in-depth, unstructured interviews with FBW from the Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces. While taking into consideration their intersectional experiences of gender, race, as well as cultural and traditional societal pressures, this study represents these womens’ voices in order to understand how they make meaning of and negotiate their spaces and roles as breadwinners. In the course of interviews and analysis, the realities faced by FBW revealed experiences, individual and communal, shared and unique, which expose archaic divisions of gender within our society, which have been hiding behind constructions of reform advocating equality among the sexes. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Thesis (MBA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / This research report is an autoethnographic narrative that gives a first-hand account of life as experienced by a young Black South African woman living in post-apartheid South Africa. It is a story of her life as a young child who was adopted after the death of her mother and the subsequent abandonment by her biological father. It is also the story of a Black professional woman who struggles to negotiate her way through the corporate world after having had negative experiences in some of the organisations that she has worked for. It highlights the plight of Black professionals all over South Africa who resort to job hopping as a means with which to escape unfair treatment in the workplace. The narrative also deals with issues that are specific to women only. Her experiences of these issues include unfair treatment due to the fact that she was pregnant and later on unfair treatment due to the fact that she is a single mother. They also include the abuse that she has suffered at the hands of certain men in her life. All of these issues have gone a long way towards shaping her perceptions of the country in which she lives as well the role that she feels she is expected to fulfil in it. The narrative is an honest and authentic account of the events that have shaped her perception of corporate South Africa as it struggles to incorporate Employment Equity and Affirmative Action policy into their organisational culture. She highlights the fact that the organisational policies and systems in themselves may be perfect but due to the fact that they have to be implemented by people they often reflect some of the prejudice that exists in society. In sharing her story it is her hope that other Black people would make their stories known for she believes that it is only when these stories are let out in the open can we begin to have meaningful dialogue about them and in so doing come to a resolution that will benefit all of us as a nation. She believes that our failure to talk to one another can only serve to widen the gap that currently exists between Black and White South Africans.

In modern South African society, many women have overcome traditional notions of gender by becoming breadwinners in their homes and providing primary financial support for their families. Employing a Phenomenological Feminist viewpoint, this dissertation contextualises the meaning that South African female breadwinners (FBW) ascribe to their experiences within their lived environment, utilising data collected from in-depth, unstructured interviews with FBW from the Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces. While taking into consideration their intersectional experiences of gender, race, as well as cultural and traditional societal pressures, this study represents these womens’ voices in order to understand how they make meaning of and negotiate their spaces and roles as breadwinners. In the course of interviews and analysis, the realities faced by FBW revealed experiences, individual and communal, shared and unique, which expose archaic divisions of gender within our society, which have been hiding behind constructions of reform advocating equality among the sexes. / Psychology / M. A. (Psychology)