MGS / Institute of Gender and Youth Studies / See the attached abstract below

MCur / Department of Advanced Nursing Science / See the attached abstract below

MCur / Department of Advanced Nursing Science / ● BACKGROUND Maternal Mortality rate is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant within 42 days of termination of pregnancy irrespective of the duration/site of the pregnancy. South Africa like any other country, has high maternal mortality rate. Most deaths are caused by factors attributed to pregnancy and childbirth in health facilities. It is the practice in all public hospitals and clinics that women are discharged ±6 hours after delivery hence most problems are not detected thus the complications they may be having such as thromboembolism or sepsis that may arise during the post-partum period. ● AIM OF THE STUDY The purpose of the study was to determine perceived factors contributing to maternal mortality among women in rural areas of Musina Municipality within Limpopo Province. ● METHODS A quantitative, descriptive, exploratory, cross- sectional research was used to conduct the study. The target population consisted of all pregnant and lactating women who attended the sampled clinics (ANC) in Musina Municipality. Self- Administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the women who met the criteria for inclusion. A total of 342 women were recruited to participate in this research from all five (5) health iv facilities. Collected data was analysed using SPSS Version 23.0 computer software with the assistance of a Statistician. ● FINDINGS Findings of this study revealed that majority of the respondents 215 (53.0%) reported late booking for Ante-Natal Care (ANC), among the late booking 120 (25.0%) commenced ANC attendance at second trimester, while 95 (12%) commenced ANC at last trimester and only attended once only. Minority of the respondents 127 (24.2%) reported that they never attended ANC because of various reasons cited such as not accessing clinic because of distance and not having transport. Majority 232 (83.5%) of the respondents revealed that professional nurses ‘attitudes and unwelcoming postures make them to report during labour than attending ANC. Of the respondents, 49 (17.6%) reported lack of knowledge on engorged breast and mastitis. Various socioeconomic and knowledge factors influenced women, (28.5%) women indicated long distance to health facility, while (12.5%) arrived in labour ward with head on perineum because labour started suddenly, lack of money and transport by (48.4%). ● RECOMMENDATION Recommendation was made on the importance of in-service training of professional midwives on interpersonal relation, proper assessment of women to detect any complications. Recommended workshops for training and different courses in order to broaden their knowledge relating to pregnancy and childbirth and management of pre and post-partum. Also awareness sessions for women about dangers signs during puerperium were recommended. ● CONCLUSION This study has identified several factors that have an important influence on maternal mortality in the study area. Among these are variables such as place of consultation/diagnosis, the person who pays the treatment costs, awareness of pregnancy complications and knowledge of the place of ANC treatment, among others. / NRF

PhDGS / Institute of Gender and Youth Studies / The existence of humans has always been associated with movement, owing, among other reasons, conflicts, to disasters and search for more habitable areas and better living conditions. Historically, migration of women has not been given much attention by scholars; international migration literature has always been dominated by data on male migration. However, almost half of the immigrants coming into South Africa are women. Young female immigrants are considered more vulnerable than their male counterparts. Through a qualitative approach, this study aimed at investigating the vulnerability of young Zimbabwean female immigrants in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city and its industrial and commercial heartland, in order to develop a comprehensive strategy to minimise their vulnerability. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were used for data collection, and Atlas.ti qualitative analysis software was used to analyse the data. The population of the study was young female immigrants between the ages of 18 and 35 years residing in Johannesburg, and experts in the field of migration. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to select the participants. The findings of this study highlighted that the young Zimbabwean female immigrants are vulnerable to abuse, discrimination, xenophobia, poor health, and social and economic problems. The abuse, discrimination and xenophobia were perpetrated by their partners, the society, colleagues in the workplace, employers, and the authorities who are supposed to protect and provide services for these immigrants. These problems were a result of the intersecting factors that cause the young women’s vulnerability. These include nationality, gender, legality, language barriers, type of work, poverty (and the desperation it generates), and competition over job opportunities. The study indicated that these female immigrants do not look for the law’s protection because they are afraid of being deported, and they are afraid of the police, who are reluctant to protect them, and often further abuse them. The study recommends the adoption of the Multistakeholder Comprehensive Migration Strategy which was developed in this study to minimise the young women’s vulnerability. This strategy promotes the collaboration of different parties at all levels – individual, community, civil society, regional and national – in achieving this all-important purpose. All these stakeholders should collaborate in initiatives to promote and protect the rights of these young women, and ensure gender equality in migration. / NRF

Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Background: Late antenatal care (ANC) booking delays treatment and management of high-risk pregnancies, which may result to maternal deaths. Early ANC booking has been found to be effective in most of the pregnancy related risk factors that can be detected and managed at early stages of pregnancy. Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence and factors contributing to late ANC booking amongst pregnant women in primary health care facilities at Dikgale-Mamabolo local area. Methods: Quantitative cross-sectional research approach was used. The study was conducted at Dikgale-Mamabolo local area, which consists of seven clinics at Polokwane, Limpopo province in South Africa. Only three clinics were purposefully selected for the study. The population of the study included pregnant women who were 18 years and above. The sample size consisted of 238 pregnant women who came for ANC services in primary health care facilities during the period of the study. Convenience sampling method was used to select pregnant women from the population. Data was collected using an adapted questionnaire. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPPS) version 25. Results: The results indicated that 86% of pregnant women booked antenatal care before five months gestational age and 14% booked after five months gestational age. Factors contributing to late ANC booking amongst pregnant women were marital status, educational level, employment status, mode of transport to clinic, lack of information, cultural beliefs, long distance to the clinic, long waiting time in the clinic and clinic operating hours. Conclusion: Late ANC booking remains a major public health issue. The study showed that lack of information and cultural beliefs are major contributing factors to late ANC booking. It is recommended that awareness campaigns should be conducted in the community and schools to empower women with knowledge about ANC services.

Thesis (MPH.) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Background: Disclosure of Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) is still a challenge to people living with the disease because of the discrimination, stigma and judgemental attitudes. Women prefer to keep their illness to themselves and make it a secret. The revealing of HIV status relies on an individual who is living with the illness. The concept of non-disclosure is a vital issue that threatens immediate families in which there are people, especially women battling the non-disclosure of their HIV status. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to explore and describe the experiences of concealing HIV positive status to the immediate family by women living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus at the selected villages in Limpopo Province. Methods: The qualitative and descriptive phenomenological method was followed. Due to saturation, ten women participated after being selected through purposive sampling from the database with the consideration of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews in Sepedi. The data was transcribed, translated and analysed through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results: WLW-HIV continue to manage to live with a secret about their HIV status due to the unpleasant feelings they hold about the illness continue, still pointing fingers and sceptical about disclosing, particularly to their children. They further tell lies about their illness and hide their medications away from the members of their family. The reasons about concealing their status include among others fear of prejudice, lack of trust, fear of abandonment and rejection, fear of blame and humiliation, denial, misconceptions that people still hold about HIV and the view of it as a predicament. Others conceal because of the lack of support and the target of the disclosure. xii Conclusion: The outcomes of the study have uncovered that there is still less awareness by members of the society about HIV/AIDS, which puts pressure on the WLW-HIV to effectively deal with an HIV positive status and disclose to their family members. These factors contribute to concealment and compromise the level of support that WLW-HIV would get from their family members, further impacting negatively on adherence. Keywords: Concealment, HIV/AIDS, Phenomenological study, Stigma and Immediate family.

Thesis (M. A. (Nursing)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / Indigenous practices are performances that occur naturally in a region or a growing living environment. Most women believe in indigenous practices because of their cultures and social structure. In South Africa regardless of the availability and accessibility of maternal and child health services, 50% of women were found that they still consult traditional birth attendants as their first choice during pregnancy, labour, delivery, and postnatal care. The purpose of the study was to determine the indigenous practices of women during pregnancy, labour and puerperium amongst cultural groupings at selected hospitals in Limpopo Province, South Africa. A Convergent parallel mixed method design was used in the study to collect both qualitative and quantitative data at the same time. Non-probability purposive sampling was used to select 15 participants and Probability simple random sampling was used to select 125 women who were pregnant, in labour and puerperium using slovin’s formula. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview with a guide for qualitative strand and a self-administered structured questionnaire for quantitative srtand. Data were analysed qualitatively using tech’s open coding method and quantitatively using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 25 with the assistance of the University of Limpopo’s Bio-statistician. The results of the study showed that most women use indigeneous practices for protection against witchcraft, fear of giving birth in caesarian section and many other reasons.THPs and church leaders are regarded as the most principled people in their community. Indigenous women are aware of the sign and symptoms during pregnancy, labour, and puerperium which may determine consultation to healthcare practitioners, but they choose THPs and church leaders. Most women still rely on their religious beliefs to assist during their labour. Pregnant women, those in labour and puerperium should be supported to practice their religious beliefs and practices. THPs and church leaders are obliged to teach their clients and ensure that they know the names and components of the traditional medicines and church rituals they use.The nursing education should include indigenous practices in the curriculum so, that healthcare practitioners know about the indigenous practices and can serve as assistance in the training and development of health practitioners who continuously care for women during pregnancy, labour, and puerperium and as a result, may reduce maternal and child morbidity and mortality in Limpopo Province, South Africa.

Female managers in the mining industry face unique challenges not experienced by their male counterparts. They need to perform identity work to overcome these barriers successfully so that they can create a leadership identity. Leadership development contexts may foster identity construction. To enhance employment equity in historically male-dominated professions and environments, an understanding of women’s leadership identity construction in leadership development contexts is beneficial. The purpose of this research was to explore the identity work of female managers working in a leadership development context in the mining industry, to determine how they construct a leadership identity. This was an exploratory and descriptive qualitative study conducted within the hermeneutic phenomenological research paradigm. A purposive sample consisting of five women working in a mining company was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and data were analysed using the phenomenological hermeneutical method. The main findings indicate that four main identity bases influence how female managers in a leadership development context create a leadership identity. These include: (i) the impact of life spheres, (ii) integrating personal and professional roles, (iii) the role work facets play and (iv) the changing self. Moreover, four leadership identity work strategies are used to counter the effects of the identity bases. These are: (i) being guided by personal philosophies, (ii) balance and negotiation between personal and professional lives, (iii) building relationships both personally and professionally, and (iv) assuming ownership for careers and lives using career management strategies. Based on these findings, a conceptual framework was developed. The findings may guide organisations in developing and implementing effective and well-informed policies, strategies and initiatives geared at the attraction, retention, development and appropriate support of women who are or who wish to be employed as female managers in the mining industry. This study contributes to the knowledge base concerning female leadership in the mining industry in South Africa. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Bibliography: pages 204-228. / Historically Muslim women have been marginalised in the examination of Islamic texts and Muslim society. This has resulted in the non-recognition and silencing of women's perspectives as well as the concealment of some of the traumatic realities experienced by groups of Muslim women. Exacerbated by pervading social and religious notions of "private" families, the incidence of wife battery within Muslim societies have been largely hidden violence against wives is seen as the manifestation of a sexist and patriarchal ideology. This study examines the manner in which Islamic gender discourses inform and impact upon the phenomenon of violence against women. The related tensions between patriarchal and egalitarian Islamic perspectives are explored. This study involves a two-fold feminist analysis of gender ideology in religious texts and contemporary Muslim society. At the level of textual studies, I applied a feminist hermeneutic to medieval and contemporary Qur'anic exegetical literature. The examination of medieval period focused on the exegesis of Abu Jafar Muhumammad b. Jarir al-Tabari (839-922), Abu al-Qasim Mahmud b. Umar Zamakshari (1075-1144), Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149- 1210). The study of contemporary exegetical literature concentrated on the approaches and exegeses of Fazlur Rahman and Amina Wadud-Muhsin. Hermeneutical debates on violence against wives were focused on the interpretations of the Qur'anic notion of female nushuz (Q.4:34). In examining contemporary Muslim society, I employed feminist qualitative research methodology. I interviewed a number of women from a South African Muslim community in the Western Cape. Here, the sample consisted of eight women with whom open-ended in-depth interviews were conducted. The interviews were transcribed and thematically analysed. I found that interweaving levels of religious symbols and discourses shaped normative understandings of gender relations. This in turn had implications for both structural and practical discourses of violence against women in Muslim societies. Islamic gender ideology spanned the continuum from patriarchal to feminist approaches. Misogynist religious understandings reinforced the husband's right to control and coerce his wife, even if this implied the use of force. On the other hand, egalitarian Islamic perspectives prioritised the Qur'anic ethics of equality and social justice and rejected the violation of women. I argue that Islam provides numerous resources for the pro-active empowerment of women and the promotion of the full humanity of women.

The study aimed to test whether or not Organisational-based Self-Esteem (OBSE) mediated the relationship between perceived discrimination and job satisfaction. OBSE was expected to have an impact on Job Satisfaction, whilst Perceived Discrimination was argued to have an effect on OBSE. The study was conducted with a sample of 238 women as previous research indicates women are more likely to experience discrimination in the workplace. Contrary to expectations, the SEM revealed that perceived discrimination did not have a significant impact on job satisfaction. Also, the results obtained suggest that OBSE does not mediate the relationship as there was no significant relationship between perceived discrimination and OBSE. There was evidence that OBSE could be a moderator in the relationship instead. Furthermore, opposing the literature, the results supported the notion of global SE mediating the relationship between perceived discrimination and job satisfaction as it was the only significant path in the SEM. Overall, the study contributed to a body of literature and added value by suggesting that the role of perceived discrimination is underestimated as its impact extend outside of the workplace and may have deeper repercussions.