This thesis explores variations and shifts in gender roles in housing delivery and the construction. Although presently excluded from construction activities, women have in the past constituted substantial proportions of builders in many countries worldwide. In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, women have traditionally been responsible for building house. However, recent studies and reports indicate that women in Botswana and other countries in the region are grossly underrepresented in construction activities. The few women currently employed in the construction industry work mostly as labourers. Boserup and other scholars have attributed the gendered division of labour to economic development, technological changes, patriarchy, capitalism colonialism or modernisation Based on qualitative and quantitative studies undertaken in the township of Lobatse, Botswana, and adopting a pluralistic and holistic approach, I however posit that gender roles and relations are outcomes of negotiation and normalisation processes through which men and women (as individuals or in groups) use their power and positions in society to access and control resources and services. The outcomes and negotiation processes are themselves conditioned by a web of interacting and intersecting historical, social, economic, political and environmental factors. I further argue that in the context of Botswana, traditional gender roles were shaped by prevailing patriarchal ideologies and institutions, the country's fragile environment, subsistence modes of production, and frequent intertribal wars that characterised the region. However, men's takeover of housing and construction activities that emerged during the colonial period was due to the intersection of Western influences, men's temporary migrations to South Africa, commoditisation of labour and the introduction of the market economy. Women's exclusion from the construction industry has since been entrenched through the atrophication of women's traditional building skills caused by widespread preferences for exogenous building materials and Western style houses. Due to lack of non-traditional building skills, women have been forced to work as labourers in the waged construction industry or as unpaid managers, supervisors and caterers in self-help housing. Robbed of their ability to build houses, women have been obliged to negotiate new gender relationships and strategies for accessing and owning houses. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2005.

African women in the past were not given equal opportunities with men in planning and construction of their houses. As a result there is no clear indicative level of participation of women during the planning and construction of their houses. The People’s Housing Process is one of the approaches adopted by government and community organizations to encourage community participation in their housing projects but; women’s involvement is still not clear. Therefore this research is aiming to understand the activities performed by women, their roles in related activities, and the methods that they used to get involved in the planning and construction of their houses. A Qualitative research has been conducted to identify the level of women’s engagement in planning and construction of their houses in the People’s Housing Process (PHP) project at Piesang River. The findings of the study revealed that the Urban Poor Fund (UPF) savings system, together with the government subsidy for housing, empowered women to participate in planning and construction of their houses at Piesang River. Moreover; the findings indicated that town planning procedures and bylaws were not properly applied during project planning and implementation. In conclusion this dissertation recommends the formation of Municipal Community Partnership (MCP) for Piesang River FedUP community and EThekwini municipality, in which both stakeholders work together to address the way forward for the project in preference to continuing blaming each other for the shortfalls. / M.T.R.P. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2013.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1996.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1996.

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Unattached women with problem backgrounds are repeatedly using crisis related services in Vancouver's skid road. These services consist of emergency shelter accommodation, counselling, and housing referral. The women requiring these services have an urgent problem locating and maintaining stable, long-term housing. Such women are usually between the ages of 19 and 55 years and live without spouses, dependents, or other significant attachments. They are likely to be physically, mentally, or socially handicapped, and unable to support themselves. Most of them are defined by social service and health agency workers as "hard-to-house" in most private market housing. Members of this group have personal problems characterized by psychiatric difficulties, mental instability, and drug and alcohol problems. Their present residential environment and the lack of suitable residential alternatives, exacerbate their problems, causing extreme psychological and often physical hardships. Agency workers express urgent concern that, while the provision of emergency services may temporarily stabilize a client, the constant moves and the repetition of these services is not only therapeutically disruptive, but does nothing to meet the clients' long-term needs. As most of the target group is unable to cope with independent living and requires 2n>-hour living supervision, the need for residential care is perceived as a remedy. There is evidence that the occurrence of deinstitutionalization has added to the numbers of skid road residents by releasing ill-prepared patients or inmates of institutions into the community. Hotels and rooming house operators express concern over a hard-to-house population who are burdensome. Mental health professionals have expressed concern over the lack of residential alternatives available to former mental patients in Vancouver. The recent trend in the care of deinstitutionalized mental patients in North America, point to the provision of supportive housing. This is housing which provides social supports designed to assist the resident in coping with daily living while integrating into the community. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the nature of these women's housing problems in their current residential environment; to discover their dissatisfactions and requirements with regard to housing; to examine the supply of residential options; and to explore the - type of residential alternatives that would be most suited to their needs. Three data sources were used: skid road agency workers and their clients experiencing housing related difficulties; key informants in the community involved in the provision of social housing and residential care programs; and the mental health literature. Interviews with agency workers and their clients found that hotel and rooming houses are highly inappropriate living arrangements for the subject group. Several conditions related to the skid road residential environment were found to render unattached woment especially vulnerable to physical and sexual assault and other forms of harrassment. These conditions included poor security; limited supervision; discrimination; as well as the fact that women are a minority population. The interviews also found that women prefer safe, secure, self-contained suites or sex-segregated bathrooms and toilets. The inventory of residential options in Vancouver revealed that most were unsuitable, and of those considered suitable, the supply was extremely inadequate. The mental health literature suggests that residential programs encouraging independent living, have been successful for other populations with characteristics similar to those of the target group. This thesis recommends further study of the population, their capabilities, and the extent to which they can be rehabilitated, as well as/'the necessary support services required, to be followed by the initiation of a pilot project. The thesis also recommends that skid road hotels and rooming houses be improved in ways that would reduce the hardships imposed on unattached female residents. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / Urban Planning / Master / Master of Science in Urban Planning