The aim of this study is to to look deeper into the subject of father’s rights to his child in relation to the rights of the mother in custody feuds. The hypothesis was that fathers were being discriminated in relation to mothers when it came to child-custody. This research has been done as a literature study with content analysis. The study has used to theoretical concepts to guide the focus in the analysis. The theoretical concepts are: the concept of Rights and the Gender Role Concept. The main results of the study showed that men were not being discriminated in legal context. However, a secondary result was that men could be considered to be discriminated from a gender role perspective. Gender role constructions and inequality was found to have effect on the outcome in custody feuds.

Thesis (MA (Political Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / This thesis contributes to existing literature on violent and peaceful societies generally, and more specifically contributes to debates on gender egalitarian societies within the fields of Peace, Gender and Indigenous Studies, by focusing on the KhoeSan, and KhoeSan women especially. This research project focused on two critically intersectional components: (1) reconstructing knowledge in general and reclaiming indigenous knowledge, from an African feminist perspective; and (2) analysing and reclaiming peaceful societies and the notion of nonviolence as a norm. Inextricably tied to these primary research questions, is the issue of gender, and gender egalitarianism, especially as it relates to women. An interdisciplinary, intersectional approach was used, combining the analytical lenses of the fields of Political Science (Peace Studies), Anthropology and Gender Studies, with some attention to cultures and spiritualities. The participatory methods employed include focus group discussions and unstructured interviews with KhoeSan community leaders, especially women elders. Concrete skills exchange with, and support for, the participating communities was consciously facilitated. Scholarship on, as well as practices of, the Khoesan evince normative nonviolence, as well as gender egalitarianism. These ancient norms and practices are still evident in modern KhoeSan oral history and practice. This thesis sets the following precedents, particularly through the standpoint of a female KhoeSan scholar: (a) contributing to the research on peaceful societies by offering an analysis of the KhoeSan’s nonviolence as a norm; (b) and extending scholarship on gender egalitarian societies to the KhoeSan. Further research in these intersecting areas would be invaluable, especially of peacefulness, social egalitarianism and collective leadership, as well as gender egalitarianism, among the KhoeSan. Broadening research to encompass Southern Africa as a region would significantly aid documentation.

Due to the changing demographics of South African organisations after the 1994 elections and the subsequent sub-cultural diversification, the working environment is becoming the primary place where the different South African sub-cultural groups, with their different value systems, are in interaction with each other. The consequent lifting of sanctions exposed South African organisations to globalisation and international competition. This forced managers to improve organisational processes and operations, not only to protect their own domestic markets, but also to become internationally competitive. At the same time, they had to adhere to newly created labour legislation, which dramatically changed the face of the South African labour market. The complex combination of several sub-cultures in the South African work environment can adversely affect organisational effectiveness if not properly understood and managed by effective transformational leaders. The concept of cultural values was used to explore the differences, as well as the similarities, between the various sub-cultural groups in the South African environment. This study examined cultural differences and similarities between 477 junior and middle managers in the financial services sector, who belonged to the four South African sub-cultural groups (Black, Coloured, White, and Indian), and between South African male and female managers. It also investigated whether cultural values change indiscriminately during the acculturation process, or whether certain cultural values, labelled peripheral values, change easier or before other cultural values, labelled core values. Due to the importance of transformational leadership in the work environment, this study also explored the differences and similarities of South African managers on Bass and Avolio’s Full Range Model of Leadership. (Avolio&Bass, 1999; Bass, 1985, 1997). A moderate social constructionist theory was used as a framework for this study, to analyse and describe quantitative results obtained with the various measuring instruments. Firstly, it was found that although there were statistically significant differences between most of the cultural value dimensions of the various sub-cultural groups, not all of these differences were practically significant. Results indicated that these groups could often be clustered together on specific cultural value dimensions, sometimes consisting of a Black, White, and Coloured cluster, sometimes as a Black, Coloured, and Indian cluster, and so forth. Secondly, independent variables other than sub-cultural group, gender, and age also showed practically significant relationships with some of the cultural value dimensions. Thirdly, the results indicated that the cultural values are very stable, even in the dynamic and multi-cultural South African environment, and as such, no core or peripheral values could be identified. Finally, the results also indicated that the transformational-transactional leadership model is cross-culturally endorsed within the South African financial services sector. It pointed out that irrespective of gender, junior or middle management level, age, educational level, number of years full-time work experience, number of years as manager, or having been exposed to formal Western management training, all managers evaluated themselves as more transformational than transactional. / Thesis (PhD (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted