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An explorative study of rural women's peceptions [sic] of sexuality and HIV prevention in their local socio-cultural context : a case study of rural Schoemansdal, Mpumalanga / An explorative study of rural women's perceptions of sexuality and HIV prevention in their local socio-cultural context : a case study of rural Schoemansdal, MpumalangaChauke, Tinyiko 02 1900 (has links)
Socio-cultural factors oppress and construct women as men’s objects of desire and pleasure, thus increasing women’s vulnerability to HIV infection and, subsequently, maintaining the HIV and AIDS epidemic and prevalence in South Africa’s rural areas. South Africa’s rural women and their sexuality has not received adequate attention to date. This qualitative study sought to explore rural women’s perceptions on their sexuality and HIV prevention within the socio-cultural context of Schoemansdal (South Africa). A sample of ten participants, who are women from the Swazi ethnic group between the ages of twenty and fifty, were purposefully drawn to participate in this study. Data were collected by means of tape–recorded, face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions. Results of the study reveal that women’s social and cultural contexts have an influence on their perceptions of sexuality and HIV prevention, and that this poses a hindrance to women’s HIV-prevention behaviours such as condom use. The study’s findings reveal that in examining HIV infection and prevention, women’s diverse contexts and experiences cannot continue to be overlooked. This is because they may provide relevant understanding of the epidemic that is plaguing South Africa’s rural women. / Social Work / M.A. (Social Behaviour Studies in HIV/AIDS)
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Religion, culture and gender : a study of women's search for gender equality in SwazilandZigira, Christopher Amherst Byuma 11 1900 (has links)
Although Swazi women's contribution to national development has been phenomenal, they like
any other women in patriarchal societies confront an overbearing situation in which they have
been regarded and treated as minors, both in the family and most spheres of public life. This has
largely been due to the social construction of gender. Traditional gender-based attitudes, deeply
ingrained in the people's mind set, not infrequently, have limited women's access to and control
of various aspects of public life, and impinge on their rights, most especially the rights to selfdetermination
and equal participation in the decision making process. Coupled with religion
which influences "the deepest level of what it means to be human" (King, 1994:4) and zealous
cultural conservatism, the Swazi women, with a few notable exceptions, experience an asymmetry
of power due to the pervasive nature of gender. Nonetheless, the history of Swaziland bears testimony, however muted, to a legacy ofwomen's struggles to overcome gendered conditions
imposed upon them either by taking full advantage of their spiritual endowment and charisma to
overcome attitudinal barriers or by organising themselves into groups to work for the social
transformation of their conditions and status.
This study examines the Swazi women's search for gender equality. It discusses the social and
cultural context of gender in Swaziland, the various moments in the Swazi women's quest for
equality and its manifestations, and the push and pull effect of religion and culture. Particular
attention is given to four organisations, namely Lutsango lwakaNgwane (loosely referred to as
women's regiments), the Council of Swaziland Churches, the Women's Resource Centre (Umtapo
waBomake) and Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse (SWAGAA). The study shows that
Swazi women have, across a passage of time, adopted different strategies, including ritual,
economic empowerment and creation of new knowledge through promotion of gender awareness
and social advocacy either in a womanist approach that accepts women's embeddedness in Swazi
culture or in the liberal feminist tradition that espouses women's individual rights. However, the
study shows that the women's movement has yet to reach the critical mass level so as to influence
public policy and come to terms with the deconstruction of the dominant gender ideology. / Religious Studies and Arabic / D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)
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