published_or_final_version / abstract / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

Background: This study examined the association between gender-based violence and unintended pregnancy in Zimbabwe. Various studies have identified factors associated with unintended pregnancy but the role of gender-based violence in unintended pregnancy has not been fully investigated. Gender-based violence is identified as a global public health concern and has reproductive health consequences. METHODS: This study used the Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) of 2005/ 2006 to explore the relationship between gender-based violence and unintended pregnancy. A total of 1 516 women were included in ZDHS. For the purpose of this study only women aged 15-49 who participated in the Domestic Violence Module and who reported to have given birth in the five years before the survey were selected. The outcome variable was pregnancy intent. The predictor variables were physical, emotional and sexual violence. These were recoded into binary variables. The responses for these were “yes” for women who reported that they had experienced a form of violence and “no” for those who had not. Data analysis consisted of three stages; univariate frequency distributions and, bivariate and multivariate analysis using logistic regression. RESULTS: The study found that the experience of gender-based violence was prevalent in Zimbabwe. As 33.25% of women reported having experienced some form of physical violence and 33.71% suffered a form of emotional abuse. In the case of sexual violence, about 15.37% of women reported an experience thereof. Unintended pregnancies were reported by 30.67% respondents. An association between gender-based violence and unintended pregnancy was found to exist. This is evident in both the bivariate and multivariate analyses. Women who have experience gender-based violence are 1.53 times more likely to report unintended pregnancy.

Violence against women is not only recognized as a pervasive and insidious social problem affecting all societies, but is being increasingly characterized as the most widespread form of human rights violation. South Africa is at this moment, experiencing violent crime at an unprecedented rate. Today, violence has become deeply entrenched in South African society. As such it is not surprising to witness the widespread abuse against women. The researcher begins by examining relevant literature in the area of the experiences of women in intimate abusive relationships. This study makes use of a phenomenological method to explicate the meanings of 6 participants of the Aryan Benevolent Home, a safe house, who have experienced abuse in an intimate relationship. The central aim of the study was to investigate the experiences of abuse women by their intimate male partners. The research was approached from a feminist perspective, using a qualitative methodology. The participants were diverse in terms of age and background and drawn from women seeking help at the Aryan Benevolent Home. Information was obtained by means of a semi-structured interview, which was tape recorded and transcribed for analysis. Anonymity and confidentiality were assured to all participants before the study. The study concludes with the limitations and implications of the findings and recommendations are further discussed. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

A dissertation submitted in 25% fulfilment of the requirements for a Master’s Degree in Social Security Policy Management and Administration in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of Witwatersrand – South Africa, February 2018 / Domestic workers in Zimbabwe do not belong to any social security system for protection against any shocks such as old age, death, invalidity, illness, maternity or occupational injuries. It is because of these social problems that this research study was carried out. The study seeks to understand the risks domestic workers in the Greenside and Chikanga suburbs of the city of Mutare face on a daily basis so as to propose an extension of the social security system to this informal sector. In addition, the study wishes to obtain the perceptions of employers of domestic workers on extending social security system to these workers and their role in this extension. A qualitative method was implemented with interviews carried out purposively with respect to domestic workers using snowball sampling and stratified sampling for interviews with employers. The findings show that some domestic workers ended in this type of job because their parents could not afford the fees for them to further their studies. Those with a fair level of education, findings show that they could not find a better job. The study findings reveal that domestic workers face several life challenges such as the inability to negotiate their salary, the inability for them to buy food or pay school fees for their children; the inability to save towards retirement; pregnancy - as they do not have maternity benefits; and the inability to pay for health care as well as funeral cover. Most domestic workers also fear losing their jobs as a result of occupational injuries. However, the findings also reveal that domestic workers are willing to participate in a social security insurance system on a voluntary basis and are prepared to contribute on a monthly basis. Employers of domestic workers are in favour of a social security scheme for their domestic workers. The employers were also in favour of government regulating domestic work like any other profession and were prepared to register their domestic workers if such policy was in place. Employers, however, felt domestic workers were untrustworthy, as such, they were prepared to contribute towards their social security scheme if the domestic worker stayed for at least five years under their employment. Findings also showed that employers were prepared to play a role in educating their domestic workers on the benefits of saving towards retirement. The objectives of the study were therefore realised, and it would be in the interest of the state to come up with a policy on extending social security system to the domestic workers as a way of promoting economic development and poverty reduction. / XL2019

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (International Relations), 2017 / Any harm or violence that is perpetrated against a person’s will, and that results from power inequalities based on gender roles continues to be an incessant, focal and universal human rights issue. Typically shrouded in a culture of silence, the continuation of and rise in genderspecific crimes demands the increased necessary attention and action for its decrease and ultimate eradication. This paper explores the impact and efficacy of gender-equality related norms underpinning international instruments aimed at reducing gender-specific crimes. Assessing both the global human rights regime in place at an international level, and how efforts to reduce and eradicate the gender-specific crimes of female infanticide and honour crimes are reconceptualised and adopted at a national level, this paper utilises a conceptual framework of norm realisation to understand the observed variation in the outcomes of the different cases and contexts of India and Turkey. It concludes by evaluating the extent of the realisation of gender-related norms, outlining and analysing the reasons for the observed variation as well as suggesting policy recommendations to increase the success of future combative efforts intended to reduce gender-specific crimes, gender-based violence and gender inequality. / XL2018

This dissertation contains four essays on human capital, labor and development economics. The first two chapters study how exposure to particular labor markets during childhood determines the formation of industry-specific human capital generating longterm consequences in terms of adult criminal behavior, labor outcomes and state legitimacy. The third chapter explores how criminal capital developed during childhood can be exported to other locations generating spillover effects on human capital accumulation. Finally, the last chapter studies how improving access to justice for women affects children’s outcomes. Chapter 1, “Making a Narco: Childhood Exposure to Illegal Labor Markets and Criminal Life Paths”, shows that exposing children to illegal labor markets makes them more likely to be criminals as adults. I exploit the timing of a large anti-drug policy in Colombia that shifted cocaine production to locations in Peru that were well-suited to growing coca. In these areas, children harvest coca leaves and transport processed cocaine. Using variation across locations, years, and cohorts, combined with administrative data on the universe of individuals in prison in Peru, affected children are 30% more likely to be incarcerated for violent and drug-related crimes as adults. The biggest impacts on adult criminality are seen among children who experienced high coca prices in their early teens, the age when child labor responds the most. No effect is found for individuals that grow up working in places where the coca produced goes primarily to the legal sector, implying that it is the accumulation of human capital specific to the illegal industry that fosters criminal careers. As children involved in the illegal industry learn how to navigate outside the rule of law, they also lose trust in government institutions. However, consistent with a model of parental incentives for human capital investments in children, the rollout of a conditional cash transfer program that encourages schooling mitigates the ef- fects of exposure to illegal industries. Finally, I show how the program can be targeted by taking into account the geographic distribution of coca suitability and spatial spillovers. Overall, this paper takes a first step towards understanding how criminals are formed by unpacking the way in which crime-specific human capital is developed at the expense of formal human capital in “bad locations.” While my first chapter focuses on low-skilled labor and criminal capital, my second chapter studies the expansion of high-skilled labor markets. In Chapter 2, “Long-term Effects of Temporary Labor Demand: Free Trade Zones, Female Education and Marriage Market Outcomes in the Dominican Republic”, I exploit the sudden and massive growth of female factory jobs in free trade zones (FTZs) in the Dominican Republic in the 1990s, and subsequent decline in the 2000s, to provide the first evidence that even relatively brief episodes of preferential trade treatments for export industries may have permanent effects on human capital levels and female empowerment. Focusing on a sample of provinces that established FTZs and exploiting variation in the opening of zones and age of women at the time of opening, I show that the FTZs’ openings led to a large and very robust increase in girls’ education. The effect persists after a decline in FTZs’ jobs in the 2000s following the end of a trade agreement with the U.S. and an increase in competition from Asia. The reason appears to be that the increase in some girls’ education changed marriage markets: girls whose education increased due to the FTZs’ openings married later, had better matches with more stable marriages, gave birth later, and had children who were more likely to survive infancy. In sum, the evidence in this paper indicates that labor markets can improve female outcomes in developing countries through general equilibrium effects in the education and marriage markets. Another question I address in my dissertation is whether criminal capital developed during childhood can be exported to other locations. In the first chapter, I find that individuals take skills related to the illegal drug industry with them when they move to other districts, even when they move to districts without significant illegal industries. Chapter 3, “Exporting Criminal Capital: The Effect of U.S. Deportations on Gang Expansion and Human Capital in Central America”, provides new evidence on how an increase in criminal capital due to deportations from the US affects human capital investments in El Salvador. In 1996, the U.S. Illegal Immigration Responsibility Act drastically increased the number of criminal deportations. In particular, the leaders of large gangs in Los Angeles were sent back to their countries. In addition to having a direct effect, the arrival of individuals bringing criminal skills and connections may have generated important spillover effects. We exploit this policy to look at the impact that deportation policies and the subsequent arrival of criminal capital to El Salvador had on several educational and economic outcomes. Using the 1996 policy and geographical variation in the exact location and delimitation of different gang groups, we find that criminal deportations led to large increase in crime and decrease in human capital accumulation for children living in these areas. Overall, this project helps to understand one of the reasons why El Salvador is among the world’s most violent peacetime countries. Understanding these effects is crucial for public policy to successfully incorporate deported criminals back into society. While my work in the Dominican Republic and the previous literature has shown that increasing the returns to education for women incentivizes schooling, there is little evidence on how domestic violence affects human capital development and whether improving access to institutions for women can address these issues. During my field work in rural areas of Peru, I found that institutions do not usually address the problems facing women or ethnic and religious minorities. For example, the police do very little to stop domestic violence. Moreover, in many cases, women do not even trust these institutions enough to report these issues. Chapter 4, “Inter-Generational Impacts of Improving Access to Justice for Women: Evidence from Peru”, exploits the introduction of women’s justice centers (WJCs) in Peru to provide causal estimates on the effects of improving access to justice for women and children. Our empirical approach uses variation over time in the distance from schools and households to the nearest WJC together with province- by-year fixed effects. After the opening of WJC, we find that primary school enrollment increases at schools that are within a 1km radius of a WJC and the effect decreases with distance. In addition, we also find that primary school second graders have better test scores in reading and mathematics. Moreover, we find that children in primary school living in household’s located near a WJC are more likely to attend school, to pass a grade and they are also less likely to drop out of school. We also provide some evidence that these improvements might be driven by an increase in the bargaining power of women inside the household and decrease in domestic violence. In sum, the evidence in this paper shows that providing access to justice for women can be a powerful tool to reduce domestic violence and increase education of children, suggesting a positive inter-generational benefit.

In this study, I examine the dramatization of violence against the female body in contemporary drama by women and the purpose behind their representational approaches. I concentrate on the representation of three types that I consider inclusive of other minor forms of violence: the political, the medical, and the social violations of the female body. In chapter one, I study the dramatic representation of political violence against women as their bodies become ideological expressions of their lands. This chapter analyzes Suzan-Lori Parks' Venus and Naomi Wallace's In the Heart of America. These dramas represent the violation of women's bodies to parallel the violation and rape of their lands that are effeminized by their subjugation to the dominant powers of the world. In chapter two, I examine the representation of medical violence against women's bodies as connoting the lower status of the female body within patriarchy. The dramas of this chapter, Louise Page's Tissue and Margaret Edson's Wit, illustrate how the female body is dehumanized and devalued by a patriarchal medical practice that fails to recognize the distinctive physical and mental needs of women. Finally, in chapter three, I discuss the dramatic representation of social violence as the most inclusive form of aggression against women. The plays of this chapter, Caryl Churchill's Vinegar Tom and Maria Irene Fornes' The Conduct of Life, emphasize the masculine fear of and intimidation by the female body's sexuality and productivity, which instigates all types of physical violence against women within the social context. In the conclusion, I discuss Eve Ansler's The Vagina Monologues as a piece of performance art that instigates an active type of opposition against women's subjugations and violations. The activism of this type of drama and its effectiveness in enforcing change upon women's lives makes it an excellent extension to the type of ideas and notions brought about in this dissertation. / Department of English

Gender-based Violence (GBV) has emerged as a major issue on the international human rights agenda and a major public health challenge throughout the world. A large proportion of the violence committed against women is perpetrated by their intimate partners. According to the World Health Organization’s Multi-country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence, it is estimated that approximately 10% to 60% of married women have experienced physical intimate-partner violence during their lifetimes (Garcia-Moreno, Jansen, Ellsberg, Heise and Watts, 2006). Once the extent of GBV in South Africa was realised interventions were put in place to address the issue and the Domestic Violence Act No 116 of 1998 (DVA) was instituted by the South African government, aimed at protecting and combating violence against women. The notion of ending GBV was also acknowledged by the late former South African president, Nelson Mandela (Nelson Mandela’s first State of the Nation Address in Parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, 24 May 1994) said: “Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression." (www.ehow.com, first accessed 9 August, 2013). People Opposing Woman Abuse (POWA), a Johannesburg-based non-governmental organization (NGO), initiated interventions to address GBV. POWA offers services to women in South Africa (SA) who have experienced domestic violence, sexual harassment or rape and other forms of violence, by aiming to creating a safe society where women are powerful, self –reliant and respected. Driven by the need to create a collective space through which women could share their stories of surviving GBV, POWA established the Women’s Writing Project (WPP) in 2005. The project publishes annual anthologies with specific themes for a particular year, giving women survivors a platform and opportunity to tell their stories as an important part of the healing process. Though the first anthology was published in 2005, this thesis only provides an analysis of the POWA WWP anthologies from 2008-2013. The notion that narratives can be used as therapeutic tools had prompted the researcher to use existing narratives as a basis to investigate GBV. The study is a qualitative, interpretive study, using content analysis as a method and working within the framework of the Ecological model (1999:18) which talks about the multi-faceted nature of GBV. A total of 65 English narratives, 13 per anthology, by survivors of GBV were used and common themes that emerged were identified to obtain accounts of these selected women’s perceptions, experiences and articulations on GBV. Informed by a theoretical framework consisting of Heise, Ellsberg and Gottemoeller’s Ecological model (1999:18), the USAID GBV Life cycle model (2009:15) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) GBV health effects document (2005:23), the researcher extracted the main overarching themes which emerged from the women’s narratives. Drawing on the study’s content analysis methodology and the subsequent emerging main narrative themes, the researcher could draw certain conclusions about general similarities in the experiences and perceptions about GBV of the women who participated in POWA’s Johannesburg-based five-year Women’s Writing Project (2008-2013). The most salient of these conclusions are that the following issues are major factors contributing to GBV in the specific sample group, and by assumption also among the larger population that it represents: alcohol abuse and the absence of mother figures. Conclusions about the effects of GBV include that most women suffer from psychological health effects due to GBV experiences. Based on the selected narratives in this study the researcher could conclude that self-narrative storytelling and the recounting of traumatic experiences had therapeutic potential in the treatment and recovery of survivors of GBV. Many of the narrators said that structured self-narration and the publication of their stories had helped to construct a recovery support system not only for themselves but also for those who are possibly still suffering from the consequences of violence. In this way survivors of GBV can therapeutically construct new identities for themselves, which transcend their abuse and thereby actively participate in the construction of meaning in their lives.

Women have recurrently faced the adaptive problem of rape over evolutionary history. Little research has investigated the potential evolved psychological mechanisms for rape avoidance that women may possess. Here I review evolutionary perspectives on rape avoidance. I follow this review with the results of two studies conducted to design a measure of women's rape avoidance, known as the Rape Avoidance Inventory (RAI). Study 1A included 99 women who self-reported acts they do or might do specifically to avoid being raped. Study 1B included 144 women who filled out a preliminary inventory of rape avoidance behaviors. I used their responses to construct the RAI. In Study 3, I develop and test a number of hypotheses derived from evolutionary psychological theory, using data derived from the sample of women in Study 1B. I conclude by discussing limitations and possible future directions for rape avoidance research. / by William F. McKibbin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology In the faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg July 2017 / This research project is a part of a larger umbrella study that aims to explore the perceived psychological effects of Silent Protest day at the University of Witwatersrand. The research participants were students that participated in the event, whether or not they have been victims of sexual violence, or participated to show support for those who have. The intention of this research project was to identify factors that influence the disclosure of sexual violence on the Silent Protest day but also in general, and to explore the process of, and reasons for keeping silent about or disclosing the experience of sexual violence (whether to one person or to many). Sexual violence is a considerably big problem in South Africa, and unfortunately the majority of sexual offences go unreported. It has been shown that survivors of sexual violence often display signs of psychological distress and might develop a psychological disorder. The silence and stigma around sexual violence can prevent victim-survivors from reporting incidents and most importantly from seeking help. Research has shown that emotional inhibition about and/or nondisclosure of traumatic events is significantly associated with psychological problems such as dissociation, anxiety, depression, PTSD and mood disorders. The aims of this research project were therefore to get a better understanding of the nuances surrounding the actual process of disclosure on Silent protest day and in victim-survivors lives, to explore why individuals decide to, or not to, disclose sexual violence, and the emotional and psychological aspects and effects that are elicited and experienced within that process. Five participants that had participated in the 2015 Silent Protest were interviewed. The themes that emerged from the research were: factors that may prevent disclosure; factors that may facilitate disclosure; factors that appear to have a mixed effect on disclosure; and the researcher’s reflections on participants’ disclosure to her. Underlying these themes were various sub-themes such as feelings of shame, not knowing how to disclose, fear, having the opportunity to disclose; the nature of the relationship to the perpetrator; anticipated reaction from others; the survivor’s general feelings on disclosure, and their views of other survivors’ experiences of disclosure. The findings imply that the ability to tease out and understand the survivors’ internal processes from the external factors is key in aiding the actual process of disclosure in a supportive manner. / XL2018