Career counselling in South Africa is yet fully support the transformation process taking place nationally. More specifically, the discipline of career psychology requires the emergence of a career development theory commensurate with its diverse population. historically, extensive use was made of western career theories which were not applicable to the majority of South Africa's culturally and ethically diverse population groups consisting predominantly of black individuals of low socioeconomic status. In addition, since 1994 a black middle class has emerged in South Africa that has become increasingly prominent. Familial and parental influence on the career development of adolescents is acknowledge as pivotal; however, little South Afriucan research exists on this topic. The aim of the present study is to investigate the systematic influence on adolescent career development from the perspectives of black South African middle class grade 11 females and their parents.

This study deals with the impact of HIV/AIDS on women living in chronic poverty. The question arises: Do we focus on their HIV/AIDS stories only or do we include their other lived experiences? This phenomenological study, on two sets of three generations of women infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and living in poverty, is an attempt at understanding the way the women experience their lifeworlds, not only their HIV/AIDS stories. One set includes a grandmother, her daughter who is living with full-blown AIDS, and her granddaughter, while the other includes a grandmother, her daughter and her granddaughter infected with HIV. The initial focus of the study was on the women’s HIV/AIDS narratives. However as the study progressed, especially during the interviews, it became apparent that the women’s generational poverty or chronic poverty was of greater concern to them than the HIV/AIDS that they were experiencing. Of the six participants, only one woman centred her life story on HIV/AIDS. This finding echoes other studies on HIV/AIDS among poor women: that chronic poverty is more threatening to the women than the risk or reality of AIDS. As a phenomenological researcher my aim was to focus on the participants’ own interpretations of the studied phenomenon. However, this was inadequate in accounting for the role that social structures play in shaping and informing the women’s subjective consciousness and experience. For this reason, I used feminist ideas to understand and interpret the women’s patriarchal experiences.

This qualitative research project attempts to consider how HIV-infected African women position themselves, through the stories that they tell, within the dominant discourses of HIV in contemporary South Africa. The research is couched within the theoretical framework of social constructionism which upholds that there are no absolute truths but rather that individuals inhabit different 'realities' and possess different 'knowledges' relative to their social and cultural context. In this view language is the medium through which discursive practices inscribe identities with meanings. Seen through a Foucauldian lens, these discursive practices, in the case of South Africa, operate as forms of surveillance and social control to 'silence' those living with HIV. Through cultural and patriarchal norms operating in conjunction with the racialising legacy left by apartheid, women, particularly African women, have come to be the group most infected with HIV. Despite their often-difficult circumstances, narrative research has shown that, through acts of storytelling, many African women are able to construct positive versions of their lives. Using body mapping in conjunction with narrative interviewing, a small group of African women of varying ages and from diverse locations, but all belonging to a single Durban-based HIV support group, were asked to tell stories about their lives and how their experiences of themselves had been impacted by HIV. Their body maps and stories showed that, while dominant discourses about HIV/AIDS do function to limit their positions for positive self-definition, these women also produced counter-narratives that resisted some of the discrediting social constructions of the illness. Four dimensions relating to self in time, self in relation to others, HIV as a disruptive event, and spiritual beliefs and morality were found to be operating in their narratives. In addition, a fifth dimension, looking at how research practices themselves are 'situated' and construct 'subjects' in particular ways was considered and this called on 'the researcher' to deconstruct the subject positions of his (in this case) own discursive positioning. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

The aim of this oral history study is to explore the ways in which constructions of gender have brought women to the point where they now bear most of the burden of responsibility in their relationships with men and for the wellbeing of children. This study speaks into the gap of the undocumented history of women's lived experience as told by women themselves. It is a generational study which charts the transformations and coping strategies of women in Xhosa households since the 1940s. The study found that the familial burdens related to women's sexuality and fertility, raising of children and financial responsibilities in a time of HIV / AIDS have increased. Teenage pregnancies, the discipline of children, HIV / AIDS and the ever present aspects of poverty are major issues these women face. The stress of day to day demands on their lives precluded them the opportunity to reflect on the underlying causes and historical roots of their circumstances. Little understanding of the gendered order of their lives was expressed by the respondents. The use of feminist methodology authenticated the women's stories as they produced knowledge of their lived experience. The interview questions raised awareness of the gender bias underlying much of their struggles at home. / KMBT_363 / Adobe Acrobat 9.54 Paper Capture Plug-in

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-241). / This dissertation seeks to investigate the experiences of South African Muslim women in relation to sexual dynamics and marital relationships. By using in-depth interviews as the main empirical research method, this feminist study foregrounds women's voices in the production of religious meaning. I explore dominant religious discourses that influence women's conceptualisations of sexuality and the related implications for sexual praxis in contemporary Muslim communities that are also characterised by living conditions of poverty and violence. Focusing on women's engagements with religious meaning as it relates to their intimate relationships, the dissertation engages these findings with relevant literature and theory proposed by Islamic feminists on issues of morality, ethics and agency. This study finds that while patriarchal religious norms powerfully influence and give meaning to the lives of many Muslim women, these same women also contest, subvert and reconstitute these norms in varying ways. The diversity and richness of women's narratives illustrate the multifaceted, paradoxical and ambivalent nature of religious discourses as it is embodied in everyday life. I conclude that religious systems of meaning as they are lived in this local context are marked by tensions between patriarchal and egalitarian perspectives that are imbricated and interwoven in a variety of ways. The dissertation contends that the inclusion of women's narratives is imperative in order to highlight the dynamic nature of religion as well as to challenge patriarchal legacies that still impact many local contexts.

This is a case study of East London from 1870 to 1914 with gender as the critical analytical category. The focus is on change in the structure of gender relations, evaluated in terms of the recognition of the rights of women and their status in society and women of all race groups are dealt with. A feature of the source material has been the use made of oral history where interviews were conducted with the descendants of women who lived during the study period. There were many indirect factors which had a retrogressive influence on progressive change in the rights and position of women. The initial small size of the population and unbalanced gender ratios, the few natural resources, a small and limited port and periodic unpredictable natural disasters gave rise to a 'boom and burst' economy with very little industry. The result was that initially the women were very conservative and unwilling to make social changes. The military occupation and the outbreak of hostilities in the late 1870s affected social and racial attitudes detrimentally. The entrenched patriarchal system, under which both black and white women lived, and the legal controls, particularly in the marital situation, reinforced the subordination of women, making the system difficult to break. Further conservative forces were at work with the European class system being well entrenched, with most women working for upward mobility, gentrification and respectability. Wealth was critical in determining status and those women from the working class, who had achieved some degree of wealth and status, were not prepared to challenge the system. Religion was important for nearly all white women and converted black women, but was a retarding influence in the growth of feminist consciousness. Little progress was made in improving the condition of women who transgressed the law, the non-respectable women, and ethnicity made no difference. Progress was made in gender relations for women in some fields. The reduction in family size and the improvement in health, gave women more time and energy for public affairs. Participation in sport helped women discard the image of being weak and frail and also improved health. Educational opportunities allowed some to get tertiary training and obtain proper qualifications to earn a living for themselves. Xhosa women who came into the town, made a major break with traditional society and many became independent. The major impetus for change came through women's associations, where women actively worked together and achieved some positive results. Middle class white women could earn an independent living without losing respectability, although it was accepted that women should give up paid employment on marriage. Black women broke traditional ties and many urban women became independent. Conditions for working class and non-respectable women changed very little. A deduction is that many women, both white and black, had sympathy for one another and they created a fund of goodwill on both sides of the colour line.

D.Litt et Phil. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This study investigates the women in decision-making positions in the South African Defence Force (SANDF), with a special focus on the Human Resources Division. The Security Sector, a previously male-dominated sector, is investigated. The environment, the enabling qualities, policy formulation, implementation of gender-sensitive policies, monitoring of the implementation of gender policies and opportunities are explored to investigate their impact on decision-making by women. This research report is based on the hypothesis that, despite the appointment of women in key-decision-making positions, their role in these positions does not make an impact on their overall decision-making, as they are not empowered to perform at their best due to various factors that are analysed in this report. Factors that contribute to or impede impactful decision-making by women in decision-making positions in the Security Sector are investigated in this report. This report acknowledges the efforts made by the SANDF to comply with the required legislation for the empowerment of women in decision-making positions. However the environment, stereotypes and other factors pose a challenge to the impact that women potentially have in decision-making positions. The number of women in decision-making positions poses a challenge to the influence that these appointed women can have in their positions.

Bibliography: pages 209-219. / My thesis is concerned with the experiences and perceptions of British women living in the Cape Colony, South Africa, during the first half of the nineteenth century. My chief source materials are the letters and diaries written by different women in the period 1820-1850. The women in my thesis were members of the British middle class and proponents of its dominant ideology. This revolved around a "separation of spheres" which prescribed particular types of behaviour for men and women. This view was more of an ideal than a reality, and women in this period found ways in which to both resist and enforce its prescriptions. I am interested in the negotiation of identity that occurred when British women arrived at the Cape. In order to tap into their experiences, I examine in detail the writing of several women who lived in Cape Town, and then compare this to women's writing in different parts of the colony. What emerges is a version of South African history in which the experiences of individual women challenge assumptions about the existence of middle class and colonial homogenising discourses. Women in Cape Town, on the eastern frontier and on mission stations lived in different circumstances. The contexts in which they wrote affected the versions of themselves that they revealed in their writing. The different ways in which they wrote, and they ways in which they constructed a d represented their identities, challenge attempts to fit them into the contemporary feminine mould. While they were creating their own identifies through the medium of letters, they were also creating cultural artefacts. Their letters formed the basis of a private literate culture which both represented these women and their particular view of the Cape to the rest of the world. Women controlled what was written in their letters - their self-representations were presented to their readers in a version not mediated through their male relatives. In their own letters, they were not men's wives, they were their own women. Most of the women I discuss had a commitment to Christianity, and the promotion of Christianity. Missionary wives and evangelical women had a code of behaviour that did not always accord with middle class ideology. They measured their behaviour according to religious and moral standards. This allowed them to contravene middle class ethics if they felt these contravened their own codes of morality. Depending on circumstances, women could be called upon to behave either as middle class women or Christian women, and in these instances would conform to the identity under either ideology. I would therefore suggest that not only did English middle-class women at the Cape create their subjectivity in terms of their status as women, as middle class women and as white women, but they also constructed their subjectivity in terms of their religious beliefs - as religious women.

Submitted to the FACULTY OF ARTS in partial fulfillment of the requirements for MASTERS DEGREE IN SOCIAL WORK (Community work) in the Department of Social Work at the University of Zululand, 2005. / In 1996, the South African National Welfare Department estimated that countrywide 67% of female headed-households lived in poverty and that 75.2% of children under 5years were exposed to conditions of poverty. The government planned its developmental programs of women and children under 5years, which was targeted at this high risk group, in order to reduce their potential dependency on the state through child support grants (Social Work Practice Vol 2.96: 3) These pilot programs which were initiated in nine provinces were referred to as flagship programs and Bambanana flagship program in Northen KwZulu/Natal was one of them. Skills development and economic empowerment would be strategies utilized to develop and sustain these programs. The consortium consisting of NGO's and Government departments had initially negotiated with provincial hospitals to purchase the products from the various projects of the flagship programs, thus ensuring a viable market for the products. Eight years have since elapsed following the initiation of these flagship programs. The research investigation undertaken by the researcher aims at evaluating the relevance, efficiency and effectiveness of the Bam banana flagship program in Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal.