Since its inception, the Mining Industry was reserved for males. Females were allowed to perform the so-called 'soft jobs', but only started working underground in 1996. As a result the Mining Charter was introduced and one of its objectives was to force employment of women in the core function of the Mining Industry. The target of 10% women in mining is only a starting point for organisations to comply with each and every individual’s constitutional right. It is clear from the legislation that changes in the Mining Industry should take place and therefore the Mining Charter was introduced to have clear targets with set time frames for meeting these targets. There are several challenges or barriers that organisations are faced with once they introduce women into a Mining Industry. These barriers typically include: competent, qualified females, physical differences between males and females, the mining environment, standards of Personal Protective Equipment, high turnover of women, specifically professional and middle management women, cultural differences and lastly the cost implications for organisations. Mining Houses are profit-orientated organisations and reserve the right to review the cost implications of employing women in mining and to consider the advantages and disadvantages of doing so. Ultimately it affects the bottom line of the organisation and whether the cost implication is direct or indirect, it is crucial for organisations to manage the changes of introducing women into a Mining Industry. In general the Mining Environment is known to be a harsh environment not only because of the physical strain that is required to complete the tasks under noisy, cold or warm conditions, but also the necessity of employees working shifts and the risks related to working shifts. Other conditions associated with the Mining Environment are, fatigue, design of mining machines and ergonomics. It is clear that physical strain is present in the Mining Industry, although technology has been incorporated to improve olden days mining techniques compared to the mechanised mining techniques of today. The problems that shift workers experience relate to both the phase-displacement of their work-sleep periods and adverse negative working conditions that may be combined with shift work. Work-related fatigue may arise in situations requiring concentration for extended periods during work hours, performing strenuous physical work, working in temperature extremes, working in noisy environments or being exposed to vibration. The mining workplace is a very dynamic work environment. Although machine design and ergonomics in the Mining Industry affects women as well as men, a smaller built person will be more likely to experience problems in enduring these conditions. Infrastructure forms part of the barriers that exist when women are introduced in the Mining Industry as well as ablution facilities and change rooms, housing facilities, work-life balance and personal safety and security. Mines are reluctant to train and place women in artisan and engineering positions, due to the physical nature of this work as well as the female employees’ unwillingness to establish themselves in these careers. Due to cultural differences and different thinking patterns, little or limited support from the male employees will be given to female employees when needed. This implies that not only should the infrastructure be changed due to the introduction of women into the Mining Industry but also change in team structures, interpersonal relationships and the sense of acceptability by fellow male employees and supervisory level. The purpose of this study was to develop a model which an organisation can use to overcome and manage the barriers that were identified when women are introduced in core positions of the Mining Industry. As the problem statement is threefold, the model considers the three primary parties involved in the process of introducing women into the Mining Industry, namely the Organisation, Men and Women. In the model it is illustrated that these three parties function interdependently of each other. The primary concern of each of the parties is: The Organisation – cost implication; Men – paradigm shift; and Women – several barriers identified. The suggested solutions and focus areas for each of the parties are considered and/or implemented. The communication channels between these parties are a vast contributor to the success of this model. This is only the groundwork phase, phase one, of the process. Phase Two of this model is that this snapshot of the threefold system, at any given time, should be monitored and re-evaluated in order for this change intervention to progress. After monitoring and re-evaluation took place a decision can be made with regards to continuing with the system or adapting the system. The role of the Human Resources department in this process will mainly be limited to that of a facilitating and advisory role. To achieve the targets set by the Mining Charter and legislation it is vital for Mining Houses to overcome and manage these barriers that exist when introducing women in the Mining Industry. Therefore applying and implementing the basic principles set out in the model of managing the barriers of introducing women in the Mining Industry is a practical way to ensure that Mining Houses deal effectively with these changes brought forward by legislation. Copyright 2008, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Heine, A 2008, A model for managing the barriers of introducing women into a mining industry, MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-02132012-110815 / > C12/4/73/gm / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

No abstract available / Dissertation (MA (Old Testament Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

Individuals utilise social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to communicate and stay in touch with romantic partners and to maintain relationships. SNSs also play a role in connecting individuals to each other – it enables users to gain a better understanding of the self and to develop meaningful relationships with others. It is used to share personal experiences and is frequently used as a means of social support. Making use of social media can therefore also play a role in coping with relationship dissolution, both at the time of the dissolution and during the post-dissolution stages of the romantic relationship. Lazarus’ Stress and Coping Theory, as well as aspects of Social Interactionist Theory, were utilised as a theoretical framework to conceptualise coping strategies and online behaviour. The aim of the study was to create a detailed description of the role of social media in coping with relationship dissolution. The study was a qualitative, phenomenological study and participants were obtained using purposive and snowball sampling. Unstructured, in-depth interviews were used to collect the data. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Based on the findings of the researcher, social media can be both advantageous and disadvantageous in coping with relationships dissolution. Moreover, using social media in order to cope during and after relationship dissolution indicated adaptive coping in the short-term, and maladaptive coping in the long-term. This study has therefore generated an understanding of the role of social media in coping with relationship dissolution.

My research examines how middle aged women (35-54 years of age) who live in the UK experience the process of growing older, and it addresses in detail the question of whether, and if so, how, their sense of self changes during midlife. In recent years it has been argued that it is not possible to offer an adequate theory of women’s experience and self-understanding without addressing the bodily aspects of the constitution of identity in their social context. According to the ‘double standard of ageing’ hypothesis, women are not permitted to age in ways that men are; they are marginalised and ignored not only by popular culture but also by some sociologists and gerontologists. Thus, there is a need for rethinking current theory so as to ensure that middle aged women become more visible. The themes explored in my project include: body image in midlife, participants’ notions of middle age, methods women use in order to control or conceal the signs of ageing, female sexuality in midlife, life milestones, ageism, the double standard of ageing in British society. The thesis contributes to the current debates within social sciences by offering new data that corroborate the hypothesis of the embodied nature of female identity, and the view that ageing is experienced as a defining factor in the development of personal female identity. Paricipants acknowledge that ageing is a feminist issue and their disourse confirms that there is a double standard of ageing in British society. In addition, my project challenges the idea that getting older is something pathological. It stresses the importance of diversity among women of different ethnicity and cultural background for the psychological, and social impact of ageing in women’s life. Finally, this project suggests that social scientists need to re-consider their age cohort categorizations and the use of the term ‘middle-age’, which - given the currently popular and medical preconceptions - carries only negative connotations for participants.

Domestic abuse has historically been defined and constructed as an adult issue. However, in recent years there has been increasing awareness that young people also experience abuse within their relationships that can have serious and long-term effects on their health and wellbeing. Research has revealed higher rates of abuse reported by younger women than by adult women (Barter et al, 2009) and young mothers in particular appear to be at significant risk of experiencing relationship abuse (Wood et al, 2011). However, there is a lack of empirical research that has explored young mothers’ experiences of abuse and, therefore, little is known about the ways in which they understand and make sense of relationship abuse and negotiate their mothering within an abusive relationship. By focusing exclusively on mothers who became pregnant before they were 18, this research addresses this gap in knowledge and offers an original contribution to the evidence base. The primary aim of the research was to offer young mothers who experienced relationship abuse an opportunity to tell their stories. Underpinned by a feminist, social constructionist epistemology, the research adopted a narrative methodology and used semi-structured interviews to generate data. Participants were six young women who became pregnant before their eighteenth birthday and who had experienced relationship abuse in the last year; two were pregnant with their first child and four were already mothers. Narrative analysis of the data using The Listening Guide explored how participants constructed themselves and made sense of their relationships, paying particular attention to the ways in which personal stories reflected or contested available narratives about relationships, abuse, motherhood and teenage pregnancy. The emerging stories offer an insight into how these young mothers negotiated limited and sometimes contradictory narratives in order to make sense of their experiences and tell their own story. Participants told stories about their relationships and stories about becoming and being a mother that were inextricably linked. Stories of relationships and abuse overwhelmingly reflected narratives of romantic love; narratives that place responsibility for relationships with women, perpetuate gender inequalities and normalise male control and abuse. Their stories of motherhood reflected currently available narratives of ‘good’ mothering and rejected dominant narratives about teenage motherhood that were inconsistent with being a good mother. The findings highlight the limited repertoire of narratives available to young mothers who have experienced relationship abuse and reveal the potentially constraining nature of dominant narratives. Recommendations are made for policy, practice and future research.

Domestic violence has been gradually increasing globally with developing countries across Sub-Saharan Africa being the most affected (WHO, 2013). Uganda, in particular, ranks highest in relation to the incidence of domestic violence (UNICEF, 2000). This situation led to the enactment of the first domestic violence legislation in the country, the Domestic Violence Act, 2010; this makes domestic violence a crime and is particularly focused on reducing violence to women (Uganda GBV Guidelines, 2013). Women make up the majority of victims of domestic violence in Uganda and are subject to gender inequality within a patriarchal society that particularly disadvantages them. However, the argument of this thesis is firstly, although there are strong cultural factors implicated in violence against women, notably practices of wife inheritance, forced marriage and societal sanctioning of wife beating, there has been an over-reliance on cultural explanations for the problem (Bowman, 2006, Speizer, 2010) at the expense of exploring psychological factors. It is argued that understanding psychological issues related to domestic violence is particularly important in post-conflict settings since the literature shows that wars and violence at the societal level often get played out in the domestic sphere and can contribute significantly to the generation of psychological harm and personality issues (Saunders et al., 1999). Victims often use different coping behaviours-strategies to protect themselves from negative feelings and thoughts (Fritsch & Warrier, 2004) but what remains unclear is how both genders engage coping styles. Secondly, in an attempt to address the needs of women as victims, policy and practice in Uganda has failed to recognise the way that women can contribute to the victimisation of other women (particularly relevant in a context in which polygamous households and co-wives are normative) and also to men, who in such a patriarchal society may experience difficulties acknowledging victimhood and seeking help. Using non-coercive questionnaires administered to 60 victims and 60 perpetrators of both genders in an urban area in Uganda, this study aimed to explore the relationship, impact of gender and role in domestic violence based sub-scales on: attitudes to coercion (private matter, men’s right to control, women exaggerate, women’s behaviour used to justify, no big deal), self-reported victimisation (physical, psychological and sexual, personality traits (neuroticism, extroversion and psychoticism) and coping styles (problem solving, social support and avoidance)). Participants faking good (Lie) was controlled as a covariate according to Francis et al, 1999. This quantitative study employed 2x2 factorial design [gender vs role]. MANCOVA analysis was used to test hypotheses on differences and interactions and a Pearson product moment correlation analysis was conducted to test hypotheses on group relationships. Since results can be significant by chance, as recommended by Pallant 2013 p.217 this study applied Bonferroni correction-adjustment to the alpha levels which are used to judge statistical significance on 14 dependent variables. The findings revealed statistically significant role (victim and perpetrator) differences but no major gender differences. Results also revealed no interaction and no effect between gender and role on all aforementioned dependent variables. However, there were statistically significant correlational findings based on role as (victims and perpetrators) and gender for (males and females) on most sub-scales on attitude to coercion, self-reported victimisation and coping styles except personality traits. The only significant correlations for personality traits were between perpetrators neuroticism trait scores and psychological violence. Overall, exploring the psychological behaviour patterns, the study provides insights into the psychological characteristics of victims and perpetrators of both genders in the Ugandan sample. These results were then compared with western published studies and both commonalities and differences were identified. Studying the responses of both male and female victims and perpetrators represents the first such research in a post-conflict African context and makes a significant contribution to knowledge. Though specific to Uganda, the study findings point to the need for a greater awareness of the significance of psychological factors in exploring domestic violence in Africa, especially in countries where the population has been exposed to violence at a societal level, such as war. Furthermore, a major contribution is made by this study in its conclusion that there is need for a gender sensitive approach to domestic violence in African context, one that takes account of the differential needs of men and women as both victims and perpetrators. Finally, in opening up psychological explanations for domestic violence in addition to cultural factors and gender inequality, the way is paved for a synergistic approach for addressing domestic violence –one which addresses these as interlinking elements of the problem requiring simultaneous attention.

The work analyzes the development and salary differentiation in the Czech Republic and focuses on the wage differentials between men and women. It evaluates the impact of factors, which may influence salary, like age, education, work classification (KZAM) and region, where an employer works. Women labour market condition goes before the own analysis.

This thesis investigates a contemporary issue in developing countries within the context of the Cameroon North-West Region. It seeks to understand how government policy and development organisations in Cameroon are empowering women and promoting their role in the community development (CD) process. It investigates and analyses the causes of gaps between policy implementation at the grassroots level which prevents women benefiting fully from the programmes initiated by government at the central level. The research is an empirical study which employs a qualitative approach with a case study design, informed by feminist paradigms and guided by the Interpretivists epistemological stand point. The case is the North-West Region of Cameroon, with particular focus on women’s development Non-Governmental Organisations and Women’s Groups. Semistructured interviews, questionnaires, focus groups and documentary analysis were the main methods of data generation. In seeking to understand why women’s role in the process of CD is still limited to basic activities at the household and local community levels it has become necessary to examine gender roles within the Cameroon socio-cultural milieu to observe how these are affecting the overall development process. The Government’s initiative to empower women all over Cameroon and promote their influence in the community is in recognition of the pivotal role they play in uplifting living standards and alleviating poverty particularly in the rural communities, which also falls within the government’s overall development plan for the nation. The research has found that recent efforts to promote this through policy and targeted programmes for women at the grassroots have been thwarted by a severe deficiency in financial and human resources, poor communication networks, high rates of illiteracy among women, corruption, politics of ethno-regional segregation and the lack of a mechanism for enforcing legislation. The thesis has thus, unpacked the rhetoric of government initiated programmes and the gaps between policy and implementation at the grassroots level. A new understanding or perception to the concept of empowerment which focuses on economic and welfare needs, different from the conventional meaning has been brought out through this research. This suggests that definitions of concepts such as empowerment must be brought within a specific sociocultural and political context. The thesis has made recommendations for what is required to be done if women are to be in the driving seat for rural development in Cameroon and the North-West Region in particular. The thesis concludes that Community Development and Women’s Empowerment are two complementary processes in Cameroon. While Community Development has a long history in the country and has been hailed as the total approach to development especially in the North-West Region, women’s empowerment on the other hand is generally considered a secular concept from the West which still has no place yet in any of Cameroon’s sub-cultural groups not least in the North-West Region. Local perceptions are that women should be empowered if only this means increasing their economic opportunities to earn and bring more money into the family and community and not more

The purpose of our study is to investigate the afroswedish women and their experiences with racism within the media industry. Through previous research, theories and real life stories that afroswedish women, who worked or works within this branch, have attempted to acquire insight of the phenomenon (everyday) racism and how it comes to expression according to the perspective of black women in Sweden. The documented experiences have shown to be a process that constantly occurs, consciously and subconsciously, in the life of black people in Sweden based on privileges. These privileges derive from postcolonialism and have their origin in the white superiority performed against others. This study has demonstrated the afroswedish women working place and its environment, where both positive and negative experiences, always indicated a basis in racism. The result has been discussed with support from previous research and our carefully chosen theories - intersectionality and anti black racism. In our final discussion, we have gathered all data to subsequently highlight our participants' experiences which has shown that the influential media industry needs to continue working against racism.

Bibliography: pages 151-157. / The intention of this thesis is to offer a perspective on the current debate over women's place in Western religious institutions, i.e. the Judaeo-Christian tradition; and to provide a way of thinking about those issues which will lead to a positive, progressive and realistic vision of co-humanity, and a method of achieving it. The thorny battleground of the "women's debate", as it is inaccurately named, was not my original choice of thesis topic. A lifelong commitment to feminist principles has been matched with an equally lengthy wariness regarding society's attitude towards such matters. Also, the understandable obsession of South African religious studies departments, and journals, with the issue of racism has had the inevitable result of trivializing the related issue of sexism as secondary. The narrowness of such thinking has led to strange distortions, including the belief that evil can somehow be 'ranked' and that there can be a 'hierarchy' of oppression. My intentions changed during a search of religious publications and journals while completing a post-graduate assignment. It was abundantly apparent that the scale of the debate on women's place in religion was fast outstripping most other debates. However, it was not an area which had been treated locally with seriousness. It had unfolded into a comprehensive and highly contentious debate in North American and British campuses and religious institutions, and the proliferation of books and articles on the subject by not only theologians but also sociologists, anthropologists and linguists had greatly extended the platform and the level on which the debate was to be fought. It appeared that women working in many fields were laying claim to religion, and were engaging issues which had previously been left to the handful of articulate women working at least nominally within orthodox structures.