Abstract not available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The study sought to explore gender essentialism conceptually and empirically, and to specifically examine the concept of maternal essence as a framework for explaining gender difference. Gender, gender difference, gender essentialism, mothering and motherhood are individual fields of study however this thesis provides a sociological exploration of the intersections between these different fields. A selection was made of gender theorists: Simone de Beauvoir (1972), Shulamith Firestone (1970), Nancy Chodorow (1978, 1989, 1994) and Sara Ruddick (1989). I characterise these theorists as essentialist and analysed their contributions to explore their notions of gender difference. All four theorists commonly located gender difference in a maternal essence residing in individual women and their experiences. This essence was characterised as being biological, social or psychological. I came to the conclusion that women’s maternity was seen to be determined and reduced to biological essence (reproductive functions) or psychological essence (emotional drives and cognitive attributes) or social essence (mothering activity). All four theorists also read off micro social structural formations (family) from either individual biology or individual practice or individual psyche. In the writings of these theorists individuals are conceived of as discrete objects separated from the macro social structural context in which they exist. The study took the view that conceptions of gender can only be held to be true based on their power to represent social reality. To this end the study explored the extent to which the selected theorists’ notions of gender essentialism illuminate the social reality of individual men and women. Their essentialist conceptions of gender difference were subjected to empirical and/ or discursive examination against the maternal realities of women in South Africa. The study used data from already existing studies and policy, legislation and programmes from South Africa which report on findings and reflect notions of gender differences which are located in mothering and defined in women’s reproduction, mothering capacity and maternal practice/thinking. The empirical and discursive evidence examined in this study showed that the four theorists’ essentialist characterisation of gender difference is useful as it draws our attention to the significance of maternity for women’s individual experiences and identity as well as for society in general. However, the empirical and discursive evidence also revealed that external macro social structures, institutions and state discourse and practices influence the significance of maternity for women and society in general. The study therefore points to both the limits and the possibilities of essentialist notions, specifically maternal essence as an individual attribute, in explaining gender difference. This leads me to the view that there is a need for an approach that takes into account the complex, dialectical interaction between individual mothers and their social context to explain mothers’ experiences, behaviour, actions, capacities, attitudes, thinking, desires and activities. This study provides examples of how secondary empirical studies and policy discourse can be used to explore the usefulness of essentialist notions of gender difference. It offers a way in which the power of essentialist accounts of gender difference can be tested conceptually and empirically. It also provides evidence which can be used to extend investigations on essentialist notions of gender difference. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

This thesis provides a comparative case study of two South African women's magazines, Cosmopolitan and True Love. The comparison is based on the fact that Cosmopolitan is an international magazine brand which is largely read by white women in this country, while True Love is a local publication produced for, and consumed by, black South African women. The case study makes use of both text and audience analysis. The text analysis begins as a genre study, in an attempt to 'denaturalize' the magazine form, and includes an intertextual analysis of the magazines and their secondary texts, or brand extensions. The magazine genre is considered from a cultural studies perspective and in the light of feminist media criticism. A reception analysis, informed by focus group research, provides the audience analysis component of this case study. Primarily, this thesis is concerned with the reception of women's magazines by teenage girls. It interrogates the assumption that, in the absence of a local 'teen' magazine industry and western rite-of-passage ritual, women's magazines serve as cultural developmental markers and informal educational devices in the passage from girlhood to adulthood. This study adopts a poststructuralist view on the self as socially constructed within discourse. In this view, the media serve as resources for identity construction and negotiation. Gender, a particular discourse organized around the constructs of 'masculinity' and 'femininity', is inscribed in the subject along with other discourses, such as those of race, class and ethnicity. Women's magazines, which provide an example of a 'women's genre', give 'femininity' a material form. Their glossy visual appeal is illustrative of the commodity fetishism associated with advanced capitalism and their continuing success demonstrates how consumption, identity and desire are intimately connected within postmodern consumer culture. Above all, this thesis recognizes that women's magazines are discursive sites-of-struggle which need to be considered from a position which is neither purely condemning nor purely celebratory, but finds instead a balance between 'creativity' and 'constraint'. Both the text-based and audience-centred components of this study draw on strands of discourse analysis. The critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Norman Fairclough informs the thesis as a whole but is applied specifically to the text analysis. The concept of 'interpretive repertoires' proposed by theorists who use discourse analysis in social psychology (DASP) is applied t6 the analysis of focus group material. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

The study explores and describes perceptions of learners in a secondary school on how discipline is enforced at Hintsho, with particular attention to gender. Corporal punishment is one of the methods of discipline that is still used at Hintsho. The issue of corporal punishment is a sensitive one since its use is now illegal. In the course of the study the researcher interviewed learners about this and other forms of discipline. Data was collected through interviews with ten Grade eleven learners. Access was enabled by the position of the researcher as a teacher of over ten years’ standing in the school. The study found that some teachers (especially males) still beat learners in order to enforce discipline and keep order. This occurs despite the fact that the school has formally prohibited the use of corporal punishment and has passed a code of conduct to encourage the use of alternative disciplinary forms. Learners confirmed that other forms of discipline and punishment are indeed used. But these are generally corporal punishment in another guise. Hard labour, for example, was identified by learners as a frequent form of punishment. While some learners accepted the various forms of punishment that were used, others opposed both corporal punishment and the other forms of punishment introduced as an alternative, especially the cleaning of toilets. Male teachers proved to be stricter and more severe than females as they were less tolerant and less reasonable. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

This study sets out to examine the process through which gender is constituted in the English classroom in relation to the teaching of one comprehension lesson at Springfield Model Primary School in KwaZulu-Natal. The study looks at one lesson in-depth and delves into the representations of gender in the lesson. Using qualitative methods and drawing from a comprehension passage entitled, "Shining moon and his toy canoe" (Appendix 1) the study examines the ways in which boys and girls in a grade 7 classroom made sense of the comprehension passage and how that sense-making relates to their understanding of what it means to be male and female. The study shows how resource materials (like the prescribed comprehension, for instance) used in the English classroom articulate young children's knowledge about gender and how they position themselves in the discourses of gender. An analysis and examination of how the learners understood the passage is undertaken, to see how gendered messages were generated within the English lesson. An interview with the teacher was conducted to examine how gender is constructed in the teaching of the comprehensions lesson. Two important findings are highlighted in this study. The text is an important tool through which gender is elaborated. The boys and girls in this study positioned themselves in contradictory ways to dominant perceptions about gender. However, largely they draw on dominant ideas about gender and maintain the status quo. The research also demonstrates further the ways in which the teacher reinforces notions of 'masculinity' and 'femininity', despite her best intentions. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.

The prevalence of gender-based violence in South African schools has been identified by the research and the Department of Education has acknowledged its existence. However, little has been done to alleviate the problem. Female learners are continually victimized by male learners at school. The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that explain gender-based violence amongst learners from three secondary schools in the Inanda area. Inanda is a predominantly informal settlement area on the outskirts of Durban, in South Africa. This study has largely focussed on female learners as victims of gender-based violence perpetrated by male learners. Both quantitative and qualitative methods had been adopted through which data was collected. School records were reviewed and one perpetrator and the victim were chosen from each school. The two participants were then, interviewed in order to get both perspectives. The data collected revealed that there are other kinds of gender-based violence besides those that were identified from the records review. The findings from the interviews outlined the factors that explain gender-based violence in schools. In conclusion, some recommendations were made in the light of the findings. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

This study attempts to broaden the knowledge and understanding of issues of sexual harassment experienced by girls in a high school in Lesotho. It does this by focussing on Form D girls in one high school in Maseru, here referred as Fora High School; and consequently how they cope with it. The study locates itself as concerned with gender justice. It assumes that it constitutes a discursive position that contrasts and opposes dominant patriarchal discourses. It sets out also to establish to what extent sexual harassment occurred and how it was perceived by those that experience it. It is a qualitative study that employs narratives and observation as the research methods. To achieve this, a module that introduced concepts of sexuality and sexual harassment preceded the data collection. Although the study was confined to Form D girls and did not include all the girls in this school, findings reveal that girls in this class experienced and observed sexual harassment in this school and more specifically in the classroom than anywhere else. Teachers were the major perpetrators of sexual harassment. Studying the narratives presented as data, physical harassment was the most frequently reported form of harassment. When such behaviours are reported, teachers ignore it and this suggests that they 'normalise' sexual harassment and thus reinforce dominant patriarchal discourses of hegemonic masculinity. Based on the participants' narratives and also arguing from the discursive position of gender justice, recommendations are suggested for this school and others to introduce sexuality and sex education in an attempt to make schools more equitable places for girls. It proposes that educational policies and curricular development more generally be revisited and to ensure that they are addressing sexuality education and therefore sexual violence particularly. / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of Natal, Durban, 2002.

This research investigates the gendered nature of video arcades and video games, in relation to the perceptions and attitudes of the users to them. Video arcades are relatively recent sites of leisure and engagement with electronic games. Very little research (if any) in this area has been done in South Africa. This research is concerned with both media and gender and draws on a theoretical framework informed by poststructural understandings of gender construction and discourse. The research also examines users' habits and attitudes to and perceptions of the video arcades, the games and their narrative scenarios, in relation to gendered behaviours. As a Media Educator, these findings reinforce the researcher's belief in an urgent need for Media Education in South African schools. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

Gender is a social construction. Society presents us with acceptable models of masculinity and femininity, and these teach us how to be masculine or feminine in a sense. We learn how to be as women and men through some sort of social conditioning, although we have some agency to resist such normative constructions. This study sets to explore how boys and girls responded to dominant constructions of gender in a rural primary schooling context. The idea was to explore ways in which boys and girls colluded with and/or challenged constructions that "boxed‟ them into particular versions and constructions of feminity and masculinity. A qualitative case study located within the critical paradigm was used. Poststructural feminist theory was used as a lens to understand how participants responded to the dominant constructions of gender. Participatory methods of generating data were used to address the key research questions, namely, transect walks, mapping, non-participant observations, and document analysis. The existence of alternative discourses in the voices of participants helped us to understand how boys and girls constructed, negotiated and performed gender in the context of the research study. Findings revealed that participants' views represented processes of constructing, reconstructing and negotiating their gendered social identities. This was not a static process. It was a confluence of fluid processes of pushing boundaries and challenging stereotypes and coded messages characterising dominant definitions and expectations of femininity and masculinity. However, on the other hand, it was a mixture of interrelated acts of submitting and colluding with dominant constructions of femininity and masculinity. In essence, with regards to participants' responses to dominant gender constructions, there existed a criss-crossing of competing discourses some of which had more powerful influences on participants, making the act of challenging dominant gender discourses a complex affair to construe. / Thesis (M.Ed)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

Gender inequality, gender oppression and sexism are a violation of human rights. Gender inequality and sexism is a consequence of the power imbalance between men and women. A significant body of research exists on gender and education. Research on gender equality has commonly focused on boys and education, academic performance, masculinity studies, as well as identity formation of adolescent boys. With the emphasis on gender equality and the curriculum implementation, my interest was evoked in terms of engaging boys to achieve gender equality. Given that any work towards social justice requires working with both the oppressed and the oppressor to raise consciousness, identify and name oppression, improve and change attitudes and beliefs, much research on gender oppression and sexism has focused on girls’ experiences. In order to engage men and boys, we need to understand their perceptions of gender, gender equality and sexism and the extent to which they resist or entrench hegemonic masculinity and patriarchal positioning. While many studies focus on women and women’s movements to achieve gender equality, this study acknowledges the significant role that men and boys can play in achieving gender equality. Understanding boys’ perceptions and attitudes towards women and girls is crucial in adopting strategies to interrupt gender oppression. My aim in this study was therefore to investigate the attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of young men regarding gender, gender equality and sexism. Focusing on the role that men and boys can play in the achievement of gender equality will not only benefit women and girls, as well as men and boys, but also contribute effectively to the achievement of human rights and the promotion of democracy. I have adopted a qualitative approach to obtain a rich interpretation and description of the young men’s perceptions. This study concluded that while the majority of participants aligned themselves with the dominant discourse of masculinity, there were the minority divergent voices that valued alternative forms of masculinity. They valued equality for women and girls, and challenged both cultural and traditional norms, indicating a desire to relate to women and girls in non-oppressive ways. These voices need to be encouraged as a viable strategy to promote gender equality. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.