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In recent years, mental illness in pregnant and postpartum women has become a public health concern. Untreated and undertreated maternal mental illness has a significant negative impact on not only the mother, but also on the baby and family. Further, many women do not seek help or access mental health care due to stigma surrounding mental illness, the unrealistic social expectations of motherhood, and the fear of being judged or rejected. An interpretive descriptive study informed by a feminist perspective was conducted with six postpartum women who sought maternal mental health care services. Semi-structured interviews provided an opportunity to explore women’s experiences of having a maternal mental illness, accessing care, and the role of stigma. Analysis focused on the bio-psycho-social dimensions of their experiences. A shared experience and meaning emerged: self stigma and expectations of motherhood, stigma and infertility, factors influencing self stigma, level of self-efficacy, and treatment satisfaction, engagement and outcome. Findings are discussed with reference to the current literature on maternal mental illness, stigma, and infertility. Findings are conceptualized using Brown’s (2006) Shame Resilience Theory, implications for practice are presented including women’s advice to other women, and recommendations for future research are made.

The Color Purple (1982) is a well-known feminist work of literature written by the ‘womanist’ Alice Walker. This analysis sought to analyse Walker’s novel in order to identify and discuss the criticism of patriarchal power relations in the novel. This was done by looking closely at the character of Celie and the characters around her, focusing on, especially, the female characters’ empowerment but also on how the male characters are liberated from patriarchy. The observations were then analysed through a filter based partly on feminist criticism and partly on psychoanalytic concepts adopted and interpreted by feminists. The relevant narrative and story arcs were also analysed through the lens of Walker’s brand of feminism called womanism to explore the importance of female bonding and sisterhood for gaining power and overcoming oppression. In the end, it was concluded that the novel displays an overt breakdown of patriarchy as a destructive force and provides the ideology of womanism as an alternative to the patriarchal ideology.

Thesis (M. A. (English Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2019 / The purpose of this research was to analyse and investigate the dilemmas of women in relationships in the literary text Love Interrupted by Reneilwe Malatji published in 2012, using the feminist framework. The study explores how women are negatively affected by their relationships with their partners/husbands. Furthermore, the study focuses on how they are disadvantaged by cultural and societal expectations and how difficult it is for them to live with their in-laws. The primary text, Love Interrupted, is analysed to answer the three research questions that this study raises. The three research questions are: (1) Does the influence of culture and society affect the women in the short stories? (2) Do the perceptions that extended family members have of women undermine and diminish their sense of self-worth in the short stories? (3) In what ways are the children in the short stories used by the women in adulterous and abusive relationships? Because the short stories are written by a woman writer, the anthology gives first-hand experience on the dilemmas that the women in the short stories find themselves in as far as relationships, cultural and societal expectations are concerned. This study employed a qualitative framework which applied critical content analysis in interpreting the short stories. The analysis focused on four short stories in the anthology: “Love Interrupted”, “The Things We Do for Love”, “Lebo’s story 1: A Young Girl’s Dream Interrupted” and “My Perfect Husband” set in the Bapedi culture of the Limpopo province The findings of the study are that women, especially those in the rural areas of South Africa, are expected to be submissive and subordinate to their spouses. As a result of this, cultural and societal expectations have disadvantaged them greatly. They find excuses to put up with their abusive and adulterous husbands in the name of raising their children with the male figure around, and mostly they stay in these relationships in order to earn respect from community members. The study also found other reasons why women in the short stories are forced to stay in the abusive and adulterous relationships with their spouses: financial instability, stigmatization of unmarried and divorced women, and cultural and societal expectations to be strong women. This study employed feminist theory in the analysis of the dilemmas of the women in the selected short stories. Feminist theory provided a lens through which to understand the women’s dilemmas. Through feminist theory, it becomes apparent that the women are subjected to male dominance and societal expectations which prescribe submissive roles for women. Thus, they are not in a position to question or challenge the cultural practices which denigrate them. Their opinion in matters is never sought; they are simply expected to comply with the interests of men. The feminist analysis of the short stories suggests that there is still a great need to continue the fight against gender inequality in South Africa.

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<p>The Duluth Model of intervention for those charged with domestic violence offences has for the past thirty years been instrumental in conceptualizing violence, abuse, power and control, how to hold offenders accountable and keep victims safe, and is reflective of a collaborative, feminist approach to violence intervention. The model’s design assumes that violence is perpetrated by men against their female partners as a mechanism to maintain/gain power and control. However, increasing numbers of women are now being charged with violence against their male partners and being referred for service. Problematically, there has been little development of policies or formal practices that recognize the different meanings of women’s violence or the particularity of their programming needs so that service providers in Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) treatment programs find themselves working with female offenders under a male model of violence.</p> <p>The purpose of this project was to engage in a critical feminist analysis of the resulting tensions, specifically to ask how conceptualizations of gender and violence undergird policy development and how, in Duluth-dominated programming approaches, service providers understand and respond to women’s needs. To explore these questions, I took a two-fold methodological approach: an analysis of the extensive literature on Partner Assault Response (PAR) programs and female offenders, using the concept of policy framing; and an online survey of service providers that explored dimensions of their work and that included questions incorporating the policy frame distinctions that emerged from the literature analysis.</p> <p>The policy frame analysis underscored the power of problem construction and shed conceptual light on the challenges of working under the Duluth model with women. Survey participants described those challenges in the, as yet, dimly lit front-lines of practice, as well as their engagements at times in creative, subversive program delivery to meet women’s needs. Future research drawing forward the seldom heard voices of women charged with violence will be critical, as will continued endeavours to fashion gender-specific, need-driven policy.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

Diploma thesis analyses non-governmental organizations which provide social and other services to newcomers (people with the experience of migration), it focuses mainly on those projects and activities intended for women or equal opportunities. Main part of the thesis is qualitative research based on in-depth thematic interviews and content analysis of relevant documents. The thesis aims to find out how the category of gender is defined, filled and accentuated especially in mentioned projects as well as in the activities of social workers and other workersof these non-governmental organizations. Regardingthat thesisalsoexamines how are the newcomers constructed and how are they represented by (interviewed) non- governmental organizations and by social workers. Thesis also examines if (and if yes then how) are the power relations manifested in the social worker-client relationship. Key words: non-governmental organization, non-governmental sector, migration, integration, social work, gender, feminist research, post-colonial feminist analysis

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