Poverty has been an issue in South Africa for quite a long time. For as long as the "poor is with us", this issue will need to be addressed. A whole range of issues such as severe unemployment, illiteracy, drought and other natural disasters fuel poverty, gender inequality, unequal distribution of wealth, etcetera. From the very outset, three stages have emerged in relation to dealing with those affected by poverty. 1. What can we do for the poor? 2. What can we do about the poor? 3. What can we do with the poor? The trend is presently at a stage where something is being done together with the poor communities in order to alleviate their poverty condition. The aim of this study is to look at the present stage in the lives of the poor by way of tackling issues from alongside their own perspective. This is done by examining the survival strategies used by poor rural women in order to provide for their families / households. At the end of the day, the findings of this study will suggest means and ways of helping the poor rural women. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2002.

This research tested the hypothesis that militarization of societies, as defined by the percent of national budgets spent on military expenditures, has adverse effects on women's economic status relative to men's. This study also examined other predictor variables known to affect women's status. Data from sixty different nations were analyzed by means of multiple regression techniques. Results show that the militarization variable increased women's share of agriculture, which suggests that as men are mobilized into military activities, women are left to produce food for the country, a situation which can have contradictory effects on women's economic status. What is more important than militarization in predicting women's economic status relative to men's are high birth rates and sex ratios, which clearly depress women's economic opportunities.

Family businesses are major contributors to economies around the world. It is also recognised that family businesses are critical to entrepreneurship, socio- economic development and industrialisation around the world. Women in family business are major contributors to the success of the family business around the world. Limited research is available on the role of women in family business. The research conducted yielded similar results for South Africa. The impact of family business on entrepreneurship and the economy, with respect to socio- economic development, has placed great interest in family business studies in South Africa. This study focused on the role of women in black family business in South Africa. This research found that women in black family business focus on bringing softer skills to the business which are beneficial for people management. In their capacity as managers in the family business, women tend to take on a supportive role to the spouse; they tend to focus on ensuring a harmonious and peaceful culture in the work place. Women in family business have a dual role of ensuring business success and quality family life. They prefer to work in the shadow of their male counterparts. Challenges faced by women in black family business have been identified as the lack of inclusion in strategic decision- making, lack of decision-making career opportunities and the lack of consideration for succession within the business, a lack of business mentorship and ambiguity of roles in the business and in the family. It has been found that the role of women in black family business may be enhanced going forward. This may be done through educational programmes or workshops for management skills for women, networking opportunities and support groups, counselling on work/family management strategies, and spousal sharing of responsibilities in the work- family management relationship. A suggested area for future research is the impact of culture in family business in South Africa.

This study explores women's feelings of empowerment that result from participating in collective action events. The study contributes to the growing body of social work scholarship on empowerment practice by identifying and describing the specific variables that may contribute to or enhance empowerment feelings in women as a result of collective action participation.

In the past 30 years, China's economic reforms have forced many state-owned factories (SOEs) to collapse, and both men and women workers were dismissed. In urban Northeast China many laid-off women were able to find employment in the service industry and small-scale private businesses, while their husbands had difficulty finding a satisfactory job. As such, the wives became breadwinners of the families. Based on fieldwork data collected through face-to-face interviews, focus group interviews and participant observation, this study examines resultant spousal relationships in the aspects of family finance, domestic division of labor, power relations, and foundation of marriage, as the husband and wife swapped their economic roles at home. This study finds that when women control more economic capital than men in the nuclear family, domestic division of labor, power relations and affection between couples all tend to be more egalitarian. However, the concept of a male-breadwinner family and the gender segregation of space are still popular on material and social levels. Thus without corresponding changes on the ideological level regarding gender, patriarchy will remain dominant on the community and national levels. Analysis on spousal relationships shows that the economic, political and emotional aspects of marriage are interconnected and interactive, and they work together to decide how spousal relationships may be altered in times of rapid social transformation. In the era of market economy, family and marriage values are diversified, and marriage tends to be less stable. However, this study finds that the integrity of family and marriage has been kept in the laid-off workers' families even when spousal relationships face serious challenges caused by unemployment. The reason is that these laid-off workers have formed their gender identities during the socialist era which emphasized the integrity of family and marriage. In the market era, laid off workers have maintained these values and upheld the integrity of marriage and family as the fundamental standard for being a good man or good woman. In this process, spousal relationship becomes a mechanism of governance by making individuals gendered subjects. / Lu, Ming. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-176). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.iii / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Background --- p.1 / Literature review --- p.11 / Methodology --- p.25 / Structure of thesis --- p.28 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Family & Marriage in China --- p.31 / The patricentric Chinese family as ideology and praxis --- p.31 / The family and marriage under state feminism --- p.39 / The family in Post-Mao China --- p.47 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Dealing with Financial Crisis at Home --- p.56 / Xiagang as a gradual process --- p.56 / The genderedness of re-employment & wives as breadwinners --- p.69 / Besieged masculinity --- p.75 / Women’s success in small-scale private businesses --- p.79 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Whose Work Is It? --- p.86 / State feminism vs. housework --- p.86 / Childcare: work and authority --- p.96 / The praxis of family authority --- p.100 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Changing Foundation of marriage --- p.113 / Obliged freedom: Match-making and marriage in the 1970-80s --- p.114 / Marriage and unemployment --- p.122 / Companionship in marriage vs. obliged couples --- p.136 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Conclusion --- p.144 / References Cited --- p.161

HIV incidence rates have been on the decline globally, yet certain sub-populations have seen their incidence rates increase, bearing an extraordinary share of the HIV disease burden. In Eastern and Southern Africa, the rate of new HIV infections disproportionately affects adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) with up to three times as many young women ages 15-24 living with HIV as compared to their male peers. These statistics make AGYW a key demographic for action in order to realize an AIDS-free generation. To most effectively intervene, researchers must examine the rationale for higher infection rates among young females. Recent studies have found positive correlation between economic strengthening interventions (such as cash transfers, savings accounts, or financial literacy) and HIV sexual risk among AGYW, however, the majority of the literature to date understands these economic strengthening interventions at the household level, as a mechanism for providing insurance against economic shocks and as an incentive for keeping girls in school, a key predictor of reduced HIV. Fewer studies have sought to understand how increased resources, and power over those resources, affects the thoughts and behaviors of AGYW at the individual level. Does this enhanced agency translate into greater power in intimate relationships? Does she feel more entitled to make decisions over her own body once she has the power to meet her own basic needs? And does agency over her body inevitably translate to fewer HIV risk behaviors? This three-paper dissertation examines data collected with AGYW living in two urban areas, characterized by HIV prevalence. These areas are the sites of a multi-sectoral DREAMS program, a public-private partnership to reduce HIV incidence in ten countries within sub-Saharan Africa. Paper 1 examined the construct of financial agency through the development of a scale, finding variations in experience of financial autonomy between age cohorts with younger adolescents’ autonomy correlated to a higher likelihood of being sexually active and exposure to partner violence. Financial agency was not strongly associated with HIV risk reduction variables at any age. Paper 2 sought to understand the correlational relationships between personal financial agency, sexual relationship power (SRP), and reduced sexual HIV risk for AGYW in Zambia in order to determine if SRP may be a potential mediator between financial agency and sexual HIV risk reduction. Paper 2 found that SRP within sexual relationships did convert to HIV protective behaviors and that while financial agency did correlate with SRP for the oldest cohort, financial agency on its own was not sufficient to reduce sexual HIV risk. Paper 3 explored how AGYW in Zambia understand financial agency as a construct and how it does or does not affect their power in intimate relationships. This study demonstrated that financial independence is an aspiration of AGYW, however, that autonomy is tied up with negative community-based perceptions about what it means to be a woman earning and with control over her own income. Financial independence has promise as a mechanism for sexual HIV risk reduction, specifically the reduction of transactional sex; however, the realities of male sexual privilege may remain an obstacle to risk reduction irrespective of financial decision-making power. Women’s sexual agency was viewed as far greater in non-martial relationships as opposed to within marriage, where religious mores on headship created a power imbalance. Overall, findings from this dissertation contribute empirically to the literature on economic strengthening and HIV prevention for AGYW, providing new insights on the influence of individual financial agency. Findings suggest a nuanced relationship between financial agency and sexual HIV risk reduction, one that is not necessarily linear or positively correlated. HIV prevention programs that wish to incorporate economic strengthening into their multi-sectoral models should consider the influence of gender norms and sexual relationship power which could continue to keep AGYW in positions of vulnerability regardless of their financial autonomy.

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This study examined the relationship between reports of controlling behaviors and education/income in a sample of 297 abused women and 2951 non-abused women in married or cohabitating relationships. This study confirmed that women who reported abuse were more likely to report all five of the controlling behaviors than women who did not report abuse. However, the abuse and non-abuse samples did show similar relationships between the controlling/isolating behaviors and the SES variables. This study found that the higher the respondent's or their partner's education and income, the less likely they were to report controlling/isolating behaviors. Also, the respondent's education and income had the same number of statistically significant relationships with the controlling behaviors as the partner's education and income.

Poverty has been reduced substantially, but most poverty reducing programs have raised other problems out of poverty. This paper outlines the principal causes of poverty in an emerging nation-Thailand. It presents strategies for reducing the level of poverty.

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