The research which forms the basis of this thesis describes rural women’s perceptions of how Camfed education and skills development programmes have improved their lives in the Chikomba rural district in Chivhu, Zimbabwe. The researcher was motivated to carry out this study mainly due to the fact that in most rural societies in Zimbabwe, women are found suffering from social, cultural and political biases in the traditional male dominated society of Zimbabwe. Compared to their male counterparts, women have limited access to educational and employment opportunities and also have less social and political power than men. Being heads of households, women have to carry out the full traditional roles with the added responsibility of household and production management. The purpose of this study was to inform those investing and interested in women’s education about whether, how and the conditions under which women’s education directly improves women’s own lives and decreases poverty in the family and society. Camfed is an organization that advocates for female education particularly in the marginalized and poor parts of the country where poverty remains a barrier to girl’s education. It provides financial resources and establishes innovative education and training programs in order to break the poverty cycle in rural communities and empower women. A quantitative approach was employed in this study using a descriptive survey design, with the emphasis on collecting primary data from the research participants as well as consulting secondary data sources such as books, academic journals, completed and unpublished post-graduate research dissertations and theses. Findings of this study revealed that financial constraints, early marriage, proximity to school, death of parents as well as domestic chores were factors identified by the women that prevented them from completing school and pursuing further studies. The women also describe their perceptions of how education has led to better opportunities and an improved standard of living as they can now afford the basic goods and services. Moreover the participants mentioned how education has provided them with the basic skills to pursue a livelihood which will enable them to enjoy a decent standard of living. The research also found that education is an important determinant of women’s decision making in terms of finances and thereby improves their sense of empowerment. The women talked extensively about how education has raised their self-esteem and how it has enhanced their economic and social independence. At the end of the study and using the acquired information, several recommendations are made for the expansion and increase of programmes that offer incentives to keep girls in school, especially at secondary level where returns for girls are substantially greater in-terms of reducing poverty and improving the wellbeing of individuals.

No description available.

Thesis (M.Dev.) --University of Limpopo, 2006 / The study entitled The Role of Women’s Economic Contribution in the informal sector of the economy: A case study of women in Mankweng area in the Limpopo Province focuses on the participation of educated women in the Informal Sector of the economy. The participation of women in the economic development has been found to benefit a lot of families headed by women, Black women in particular. In Mankweng, the study found evidence of increased number of women’s participation in the economic development. This mini-thesis is comprised of four chapters. Chapter 1 This chapter is mainly introduction to the study. The chapter includes the problem statement, motivation for the study, aims and objectives and the importance of the study. The chapter also outlines the methodology of the study, the definition of key concepts used in the study and the limitations of the study. Chapter 2 Chapter 2 comprises the literature background for the study. The literature focuses largely on women in the informal sector, their employment opportunities, marginalization in economic activities and constraints on growth that are faced by women in small business enterprises. The literature also reflects on the challenges and limited achievements of women in their respective trading occupations. Chapter 2 looks at the state of women in the economy. The labour market segment theory attempts to explain gender inequalities in employment on the basis that the labour market is compartmentalized. The chapter also looks at the definition of the informal sector. The division of labour and the informal sector focuses on the areas women concentrate in the labour market. Positioning women in the informal sector and the labour market focuses on the role women play in the informal sector. The last part of the chapter deals with the challenges women are faced with and the opportunities available for them in the informal sector. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 focuses on data analysis and interpretation of the findings of the study. The analysis focuses on the respondents’ personal background and their economic activities as recorded during interviews. Chapter 4 Chapter 4 concludes the study by discussing and presenting a summary of the findings of the study and the implications thereof. A conclusive report is made and recommendations for improving the informal sector and for further research are made.

I have observed that in Mdantsane there is a clear gap between men and women, as people are tradition-bound, and men are often the breadwinners in their households, which leave some women sidelined and only left with household chores. Therefore this research aims to investigate these inequalities, and if microfinance can contribute positively towards the development of these women, so that they can develop and sustain their lifestyles. Chapter two of this research, containing available literature on this particular study which is sustainable livelihoods and microfinance for poor women, and covers both local as well as international studies. Here microfinance and sustainable livelihoods will be conceptualised accordingly so as to shed light on the subject. The third chapter covers the methodology used in the current study which clearly outlines the methodological framework, the research instruments, participants as well as the research design and procedure. The fourth chapter provides the findings and of the the current study, this will outline the main themes that surface and are prevalent among the participants. Chapter five will consist of the discussion of the results. Lastly chapter six will provide the conclusion as well as well as recommendations relevant to the results of this study.

Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements or the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Library and Information Science) at the University of Zululand, 2007. / The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify ICTs that provide access to information/ enhance quality of life, and improve the economic standards of rural women by conceptualizing a model for the development, management, exploitation and use of ICTs in an African rural environment. In order to obtain data from the respondents, two research methods were utilized, namely the case study and survey research. In the former, data was collected from key informants in organizations that work with ICTs and rural women. Using frame lists from both South Africa and Kenya, a total of four organizations were purposefully selected, i.e. Womensnet and the National Community Radio Forum (NCRF) in South Africa, and AfriAfya and the Arid Lands Information Network (ALJN-EA) in Kenya. The survey research method was used to interview women aged between 16 and 60 years. 400 respondents formed the sampling size, randomly selected from census household data. Survey data in Kenya was obtained from the sub¬divisions of the Kaplamai Division in Trans-Nzoia district, namely: Kimoson, Sinyerere, Sitatunga and Makutano. The sample frame included: small-scale traders (68; 34%); housewives (29; 14.5%); educators/teachers (27; 13.5); farmers (26; 13.0); students (11; 5.5%); domestic workers (10; 5.0%); preachers (10; 5.0%); farm workers (6; 3.0%); large-scale entrepreneurs (5; 2.5%); nurses (4; 2.0%); clerical workers (2; 1.0%); and community development workers (2; 1.0%). In South Africa, a similar sample frame included: small-scale traders (58; 29.0%); housewives/homemakers (48; 24.0%); farm employees (25; 12.5%); domestic workers (18; 9.0%); educators/teachers (16; 8.0%); students (15; 7.5%); entrepreneurs managing large-scale enterprises (3; 1.5%); clerical workers (9; 4.5%); community development workers (6; 3.0%); and two preachers (2; 1.0%). Sampling data was obtained from census household data belonging to the magisterial districts of Umlalazi, i.e. Eshowe, Amatikulu, Gigindlovu and Mtunzini. By using the snowball sampling technique, female respondents directly and indirectly connected to one another were identified and consequently interviewed. A few major recommendations stemming from the study include the need for: women to be involved in deciding which ICTs would directly and immediately benefit their lives; sensitization and training in the use of ICTS before project implementation; resource centers with skilled human resources and technological capacities to train communities about ICTs; more enhanced collaboration with rural women by being flexible and aware of their needs and requirements; collaborative efforts with other stakeholders at community level; the establishment of intermediary working committees at community level for enhanced communication processes; and a feasibility study that assesses the physical infrastructure and needs assessment survey before project implementation. The study concluded that there is a strong co-relation between the levels of education of a community, types of ICTs used, information seeking behavior, and the socio-economic landscape/environment. It was also established that the enactment of a National Policy on ICT development does not guarantee the efficient and effective use of ICTs, especially by marginalized rural communities. Special efforts must be made to involve rural communities. These efforts would require policies that: encourage competition between various stakeholders in the telecommunications industry, govern the costs of ICTs, and govern connectivity in areas that are not commercially viable. As women form the majority of most rural households, special efforts need to be made in order to involve women in development initiatives such as skills enhancement initiatives, participatory mechanisms and follow-up programs.

This study posits that a deconstructive socio-historical reading of Ruth will elicit aspects of ancient Israelite women’s agency which can then be used to inspire greater socio-economic agency amongst poor rural women today. While it is difficult to establish the date of Ruth with any precision, the study argues that the book was first written to legitimise David’s kingship and then used as a polemic against Ezra-Nehemiah’s intermarriage policies some 550 years later. Accordingly, it discusses the socio-economic conditions pertaining to both periods, namely the early monarchic and the early post-exilic periods. The study shows that Israel began as a loosely organized tribal confederation, which lacked a structured political system, in the pre-monarchic period, and that far-reaching changes ensued upon the institution of the monarchy. During the monarchic period, the political structure of the land was increasingly centralised around the king. Despite the political changes, and variances within the mode of production, the family remained the basic economic production unit throughout Israel’s history. Similarly, Israelite society remained patriarchal in nature, and women derived their identity and economic wellbeing from the men in their lives. Women did not have any economic rights per se; their rights, if any, were secured and safeguarded by the men to whom they belonged. Furthermore, land was the most important economic commodity but Israelite law deprived the majority of women of the opportunity to own land. These factors disenfranchised and impoverished women, particularly childless widows. Within this context, Naomi and Ruth devised strategies which subverted the oppressive patriarchal structures of their time and overcame their socio-economic distress. The principles underlying their actions may be used to encourage poor rural women to develop greater socio-economic agency today. / Thesis (M.Th.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

Mémoire (M.E.R.)--Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1986. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration (Entrepreneurship))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2017. / Given good conditions, women can run businesses, support their families and the community, and contribute to economic growth. The lack of women’s involvement in entrepreneurship is a huge loss to the nation and society. Women make up 51.83% of the population in Rwanda, but are underrepresented in business – largely due to social customs, religion, and cultural beliefs. Society perceives women as too weak to conduct business, and prefers them to be confined to housekeeping activities and dependency on men. Interestingly, literature indicates that involving women in entrepreneurial activities help. Despite this, women in Rwanda have broken the barrier and started up business. However, they face many challenges; their businesses remain small scale compared to their counterparts. The aim of this study is to determine the challenges experienced by women entrepreneurs in Kigali. This research is significant because it attempts to identify the challenges to entrepreneurship in Kigali, by allowing the voices of women entrepreneurs to be heard. The study uses a quantitative descriptive approach. The target population was women in formal and informal business in the districts of Gasabo, Kicukiro, and Nyarugenge in the city of Kigali. A self-administered structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from 398 women entrepreneurs after obtaining their informed written consent. The data was analysed using recent Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24. Findings were interpreted and discussed in a numerical narrative featuring frequency, percent, valid percent, cumulative percent, mean, and standard deviation. The results show that women entrepreneurs in Kigali experience more challenges, among others including: High shop rentals, lack of start-up capital, lack of collateral to obtain a loan, high taxes, high interest rate and high transport, and a lack of information technology skills. This study has uncovered that women entrepreneurs face a lot of challenges while running their business in Kigali. Fortunately, the solution is within reach. For instance, women entrepreneurs themselves, family, society, government, stakeholder, and researchers should work together to eradicate these challenges. Women entrepreneurs should work together in cooperatives to minimise shop rentals, possible access to capital and so forth. In addition, they can leverage their experience and know-how.

Thesis / The objective of this study is to assess the nature of women’s empowerment promoted by the Sudanese Women General Union (SWGU) in Sudan as a strategy for simultaneously addressing both poverty alleviation and women's empowerment using microcredit as a tool in the fight against poverty and women's empowerment at the household level during the period 1999-2005. The SWGU directed its development efforts towards promoting the women's cause officially and unofficially through the whole spectrum of governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations. Therefore, the government support these initiatives of women development processes and assisted in establishing the SWGU in 1990 as a strategic planning and coordination mechanism for poverty alleviation through the lead of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Development and with the cooperation from other ministries, government and non-government organisations at national, state and grassroots levels. The problem of the research reveals that majority of women in Sudan live with low or no income; economically they are dependent on their husbands' income; burdened with their household activities and responsibilities to feed; educate and take care of many children, encounter a core problem which is lack of access to credit and financial services to economically, socially and politically empower themselves and improve their status. The study reviewed the relevant literature, the context of women's poverty in Sudan, Sudan poverty strategies and policies, SWGU's role in strategic planning, coordination and implementation of the microcredit programmes. The achievements of the study on the socioeconomic empowerment of women at the household levels, the constraints and the recommendations were summarised. The researcher carried out this study during the period 2005-2009, to add to the body of the empirical literature of women studies in particular to the SWGU's microcredit projects best ii practices and lessons learned. In addition the study could help in conducting further womenstudies in Sudan and other developing counties. / Development Studies / D.Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

Thesis (DPhil (Political Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Gender Mainstreaming (GM) was popularised as an approach to advance gender equality at the United Nations (UN) World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Since then it has been adopted by the UN and international development organisations as the approach to integrate women and gender issues into development. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), a major international development organisation, claims a strong policy commitment to GM. As such, it is an important organisation to study for its GM implementation to establish what lessons can be learnt from its practice. Because it is an international organisation, the study has implications for global GM as well as for SA. This thesis examines mainstreaming women and gender in development in the UNDP Country Office in South Africa (UNDP/SA). It explores the gap between Gender Mainstreaming policy and practice, through discursive analysis of UNDP policy documents and reports, as well as an analysis of qualitative interview data and participatory approaches. The study focuses on the organisational challenges facing institutions trying to mainstream gender, particularly in the South African context. It puts forward a proposal for improving GM by combining organisational development and feminist theory. Through the proposal, which focuses on a broad transformation process within which to frame GM implementation, the thesis aims to contribute towards advancing gender equality through GM in South Africa and elsewhere. Development was initially gender-blind until the early 1970s. Since then, development organisations have moved women and gender onto the development agenda through various approaches. The major approaches have been Women in Development (WID), Gender and Development (GAD) and Empowerment. The current approach, Gender Mainstreaming (GM), is about moving women and gender issues from the margin to the centre of development organisations and their practice. While being an improvement on the earlier approaches, GM still faces a number of challenges for successful implementation in development organisations such as the UNDP. This qualitative study interrogates the GM policy discourse of the UNDP/SA, and finds a serious gap between its policy discourse and practice. This gap is evident not only in the UNDP/SA, but also in one of its funded projects, the Capacity Building Project for the Office on the Status of Women. GM fails to make an impact because of factors such as lack of training, absence of political will from senior managers in development organisations (and in government), and lack of resources. It is also clear that GM cannot occur in the absence of a broad organisational transformation process. To address the challenges facing GM, I propose a model for implementation with a special focus on the deep structure of organisations that exposes the masculinist roots of gender inequality. What is essential for this model to succeed is that GM implementation should be framed within a broader organisational transformation process, based on organisational development and feminist theory. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geslagshoofstroming het gewildheid verwerf as ‘n benadering om geslagsgelykheid te bevorder by die Verenigde Nasies (VN) se Wêreld Konferensie oor Vroue in Beijing in 1995. Daarna is dit deur die VN en internasionale ontwikkelingsorganisasies aanvaar as die benadering om vroue en geslagskwessies te integreer in ontwikkeling. Die Verenigde Nasies Ontwikkelings Program (VNOP), ‘n vername internasionale ontwikkelingsorganisasie, maak aanspraak op ‘n sterk toewyding aan Geslagshoofstroming as beleid. Die VNOP is dus ‘n belangrike organisasie om te bestudeer vir sy Geslagshoofstroming implementering om vas te stel watter lesse ons kan leer. Die studie het implikasies nie net vir Suid-Afrika nie, maar ook globaal omdat die VNOP ‘n internasionale organisasie is. Die tesis ondersoek die hoofstroming van vroue en geslag in ontwikkeling in die VNOP Kantoor in Suid-Afrika (VNOP/SA). Dit verken die gaping tussen Geslagshoofstroming beleid en praktyk deur middel van ‘n diskoers analise van VNOP beleids-dokumente en verslae, en ‘n analise van data verkry deur kwalitatiewe onderhoude. Die studie fokus op die organisatoriese uitdagings vir die instellings wat Geslagshoofstroming probeer implementeer, veral in die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks. Dit stel ‘n kombinasie van organisatoriese ontwikkeling en feministiese teorie voor om Geslagshoofstroming te bevorder. Die tesis streef daarna, deur die voorstel wat fokus op Geslagshoofstroming as deel van ‘n breë transformasie proses, om by te dra tot die bevordering van geslagsgelykheid in Suid-Afrika en elders. Ontwikkeling was aanvanklik geslagsblind tot met die vroeë 1970s. Sedertdien het ontwikkelingsorganisasies vroue en geslagskwessies op die agenda geplaas deur verskeie benaderings. Die vernaamste benaderings was Vroue in Ontwikkeling (WID), Geslag en Ontwikkeling (GAD), en Bemagtiging (Empowerment). Die huidige benadering, Geslagshoofstroming, het ten doel om vroue en geslagskwessies vanaf die kantlyn te beweeg tot in die kernpunt van ontwikkelings-organisasies en hulle praktyke. Alhoewel dit ‘n verbetering op die vorige benaderings is, staar Geslagshoofstroming implementering nog ‘n aantal uitdagings in die gesig in ontwikkelingsorganisasies soos die VNOP. Die kwalitatiewe studie interrogeer die Geslagshoofstromings diskoers van die VNOP/SA en vind ‘n ernstige gaping tussen sy beleidsdiskoers en praktyk. Hierdie gaping is sigbaar nie net in die VNOP/SA nie, maar ook in een van sy befondsde projekte, die Kapasiteitsbou Projek vir die Kantoor vir die Status van Vroue. Geslagshoofstroming maak nie impak nie as gevolg van faktore soos ‘n gebrek aan opleiding, die afwesigheid van politieke wilskrag by senior bestuurders in ontwikkelingsorganisasies (en in die regering), en ‘n gebrek aan hulpbronne. Dit is ook duidelik dat Geslagshoofstroming nie kan plaasvind in die afwesigheid van ‘n breë organisatoriese transformasie proses nie. Om die uitdagings vir Geslagshoofstroming aan te spreek, stel ek ‘n implementeringsmodel voor met ‘n spesiale fokus op die diep struktuur van organisasies wat die maskulinistiese oorsprong van geslagsongelykheid blootlê. Noodsaaklik vir die sukses van die model, is die kontekstualisering van Geslagshoofstroming in breë organisatoriese transformasie, gebaseer op ‘n kombinasie van feministiese en organisatoriese ontwikkelingsteorie.