Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 175 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-175). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Magister Artium - MA / This thesis explored the resources available for care-giving in chronically poor female-headed households. It investigated the relationship between resources as enabling in the practice of care and the choices that women can consequently make in light of the multiple roles that they play as workers, as mothers and as significant people in female-headed households. / South Africa

This research study explored livelihood strategies that female headed households adopt in Magaso village of Mutoko district in Zimbabwe. The study intended to achieve the following objectives: (i) examine the existing livelihood strategies of female headed households (ii) explore the various challenges faced by female headed households and (iii) establish the support mechanisms in place for female headed households to cope with life challenges .The literature reviewed in the study was drawn from several researchers, and the study was shaped by the strengths perspectives and the liberal feminism perspective. The study was qualitative in nature and used interviews to collect data from fifteen (15) female headed households. The data collection process used an interview guide. The research employed a qualitative research design in the form of a case study cum a phenomenological study design. Data was analysed qualitatively using the content thematic data analysis which used interpretive approaches and presentation is textual rather than statistical. The study findings were the following: engaging in subsistence farming was found to be the main livelihood activity of the female heads; engaging in home gardens; exchanging labour for food; involvement in business; reliance on temporary employment from different agencies; reliance on handouts from government and other bodies; and household heads sanctioning child labour that compromises school attendance. Moreover, these female heads faced numerous difficulties ranging from emotional, social to financial problems that resulted in worsening the condition of women, and hence validating feminization of poverty among them. Several support mechanisms were discovered to be available for the female heads but they fail to produce to fruitful results to the lives of the female heads. The study made the following recommendations: mainstreaming gender education from childhood stage; efforts aimed at job creation; financial empowerment through setting up of micro schemes for rural women amongst; seeking the services of agricultural extension services to the female head farmers; improving the social services delivery in Zimbabwe equitably across genders and strengthening informal strategies to improve women‘s social capital. Lastly, the study concluded that little is being done in terms of policy formulation to make the support structures responsive to the female headed households especially in rural areas, hence the need for sustainable development through empowerment.

No description available.

The purpose of the study was to determine selected economic behaviors of female heads of households. The objectives were to determine (1) selected economic behaviors of single female heads of households, (2) selected economic behaviors of divorced female heads of households, (3) selected economic behaviors of separated female heads of households, (4) selected economic behaviors of widowed female heads of households, and (5) to compare selected economic behaviors of female heads of households by marital status. The sample was obtained from the 1984 data collection of the 1968-1984 Panel Study of Income Dynamics by the Institute of Social Research at The University of Michigan. Those studied were all in households with a female head, children under age 18, no other adults living In the household and had been In this status one year or more. The sample consisted of 50.5% divorced heads of households, 35.3% single heads of households, 10.7% separated heads of households, and 3.6% widowed heads of households. Because of their low representation, widowed female heads of households were excluded from data analysis. Economic behavior was further defined as financial and non-financial behavior. Financial behavior would Include savings, assets, spending and debt decisions. Non Financial behavior would include occupation, work and labor force attachment decisions. Economic behaviors were determined for each female head of household and comparisons were made among female headed households. The statistical analysis used were chi square and analysis of variance. Chi square was used on nominal data and analysis of variance was used on interval data to ascertain If a difference existed between female heads of households. The findings Indicate that female heads of households have different economic behaviors. Divorced heads of households had more savings, assets, debts, expenditures, and hours worked, than single and separated female heads of families. Separated heads of households had less savings, assets, debts, expenditures, and worked less hours compared to divorced and single female heads of households. In 1984, female heads of households represented 48% of alI familIes in poverty. Female headed families, a diverse group, do not perceive their income in the same way. The findings indicate that female heads of households engage in different financial practices regardless of their income level. / M.S.

This thesis explored the resources available for care-giving in chronically poor female-headed households. It investigated the relationship between resources as enabling in the practice of care and the choices that women can consequently make in light of the multiple roles that they play as workers, as mothers and as significant people in female-headed households.

This thesis explored the resources available for care-giving in chronically poor female-headed households. It investigated the relationship between resources as enabling in the practice of care and the choices that women can consequently make in light of the multiple roles that they play as workers, as mothers and as significant people in female-headed households.

A large and growing body of scholarship has suggested that income poverty has recently decreased in post-apartheid South Africa. Evidence for an overall drop in poverty rates notwithstanding, there has been very little work which has examined the gendered nature of poverty. There have, however, been important changes over the period which might suggest that poverty trends have been gendered. On the one hand, for example, the post-apartheid period has seen the expansion of several grants to support the care-givers of children and the elderly as well as employment growth for women. On the other hand, this same period has been characterised by declining marital rates, rising rates of female unemployment, and women increasingly overrepresented in low-wage work, changes which would be expected to have negative implications for women's economic well-being. This thesis uses nationally representative household survey data from the October Household Surveys (1997 and 1999) and the General Household Surveys (2004 and 2006) to investigate gendered trends in income poverty in several different ways. It examines first, whether females are more likely to live in poor households than males, and whether this has changed over time; and second, how poverty has changed among female- and male-headed households. The thesis also considers why females and female-headed households are more vulnerable to poverty and why the poverty differential between males and females (and female- and male-headed households) may have widened over time. Given the criticism of headship based analyses of income poverty, the thesis also investigates poverty and female headship in greater detail by adopting several alternative definitions of female headship that are commonly used in the literature. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1985 G74 / Master of Science

A chefia feminina, presente na atualidade, remete ao crescimento da ocupação da mulher em postos antes ocupados pelos homens, culminando com a sua entrada no mercado de trabalho. Entretanto, apesar de a mulher ter alcançado visibilidade social, percebe-se ainda uma dificuldade da sociedade e da própria mulher detentora desses avanços incorporá-la ao universo feminino. Nessa perspectiva, a presente Dissertação teve como objetivo compreender o exercício da chefia materna em famílias monoparentais, que vivem em situação de vulnerabilidade social. O termo vulnerabilidade social, por ser multifacetado, devido às inúmeras situações que podem atingir indivíduos, famílias ou coletividades, é utilizado no presente estudo no sentido de englobar várias dimensões, entre as quais: a dos bens materiais, a sociodemográfica, a ambiental e a afetivo-relacional das famílias envolvidas. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida fazendo uso de uma metodologia qualitativa, com a participação de cinco mulheres, provindas de uma configuração familiar monoparental. Para a coleta dos dados, foram utilizados a entrevista semidirigida e o questionário sociodemográfico, aplicados individualmente. Os dados da entrevista foram analisados de acordo com a técnica de análise temática, proposta por Minayo, enquanto o questionário foi analisado de forma a caracterizar o perfil das mães entrevistadas. Nesse contexto, observou-se a predominância da cor negra entre as entrevistadas e uma perpetuação da configuração familiar monoparental entre elas, bem como, a importância da rede de apoio na construção dessa chefia feminina e como elas dependem desses outros autores. Como aspecto de estudo, a vulnerabilidade social foi evidenciada e vimos que a dependência por uma complementação na renda, como o Bolsa Família, fez-se presente nas cinco entrevistadas. Com isso, percebemos que as transformações ocorridas nas famílias trazem impactos significativos e que necessitam de estudos, sobretudo, junto a mulheres que têm assumido cada vez mais a chefia feminina, a fim de proporcionar reflexões sobre os papéis de homens e mulheres, delimitados pelo patriarcado e perpetuados em diversos espaços. / Female headship, currently presente, refers to the increase of women occupation in posts before occupied by men, culminated with their entrance in job market. However, dispite the woman has achieved social visibility. There is still a difficulty for society and for the woman herself - who holds these advances - to incorporate her into the feminine universe. In this perspective, this dissertation aimed to understand the exercise of maternal leadership in single-parent families, who live in situations of social vulnerability The term social vulnerability, because it is multifaceted, due to the innumerable situations that can reach individuals, families or collectivities, is used in the present study to encompass several dimensions, including: material goods, sociodemographic, environmental and Affective-relational relationship of the families involved. The research was developed using a qualitative methodology, with the participation of five women from a singleparent family configuration. To collect the data, the semi-directed interview and the sociodemographic questionnaire were used, applied individually. The interview data were analyzed according to the thematic analysis technique, proposed by Minayo, while the questionnaire was analyzed in order to characterize the profile of the mothers interviewed. In this context, we observed the predominance of the black color among the interviewees and a perpetuation of the single-parent family configuration among them, as well as the importance of the support network in the construction of this female leadership and how they depend on these other authors. As na aspect of study, social vulnerability was evidenced and we saw that the dependence for a complementation in income, such as Bolsa Família, was present in the five interviewees. With this, we realize that the transformations occurring in families bring significant impacts and that studies are required, especially, with women who have increasingly assumed the female leadership, in order to provide reflections on the roles of men and women, delimited by patriarchy and perpetuated in various spaces.