Despite decades of gender research and public action by civil society, policy makers continue to neglect the role of women as breadwinners who work at improving the socio-economic conditions in rural areas such as Wooldridge, a traditional rural village in the Amathole district of the Eastern Cape Province. The apartheid system created an environment that continues to perpetuate both poverty and gender inequality in rural areas. Hence, rural women in Wooldridge still experience poverty, despite welfare benefits. They are located in a poverty-stricken area without basic infrastructure and with little or no access to economic assets. They use primitive methods and indigenous knowledge to develop survival strategies. This study argues that unemployed rural women in Wooldridge cannot survive without assistance from government. Indigenous knowledge and agricultural as well as non-agricultural activities are critical to household livelihoods in Wooldridge. These activities are an important route through which these rural women can escape poverty. The primary objective of this research was to obtain a better understanding of how unemployed rural women survive in Wooldridge. Furthermore, the necessary conditions required to sustain livelihood in the rural areas were identified. This was mainly done to help alleviate the plight of rural women in Wooldridge and to improve the quality of life of the rural population. The aim is to generate a policy response to rural women that is economically development-oriented. The study was based on five research objectives. The first objective was to identify the survival strategies of unemployed rural women in Wooldridge; the second to ascertain what can be done to alleviate the plight of rural women in Wooldridge. The third objective was to ascertain what has been v done to address the needs of rural women in the Wooldridge area by actors of development, such as government and non-governmental organisations. The fourth objective was to identify the constraints faced by unemployed rural women in Wooldridge in achieving food security and generating income, with the last objective to make recommendations regarding policies that can enhance rural economic development and assist unemployed rural women to reduce poverty. The main finding in terms of the first research objective is that the survival strategies of unemployed rural women are welfare benefits, the selling of assets, remittances, handicraft production and vegetable gardens. In terms of the second research objective, the main finding is that investment in human capital through the empowerment of women will assist them in improving the quality of life of the Wooldridge community. Empowerment involves skills and training, education and access to basic services, expertise regarding credit, land, the growing of vegetables and income-generating projects. The main finding in terms of the third research objective is that the Peddie Women Support Centre that is located in the city centre of Ngqushwa does not have the capacity to reach out to rural areas. Rural women in Wooldridge have not received responses to their plights from government or from development practitioners. These actors of development play an important role in empowerment. In terms of the fourth research objective, the main finding is that structural constraints hinder the economic activity of rural women in Wooldridge. Government policy that encourages investment in infrastructure using labour-intensive methods will eliminate service backlogs in underserviced areas such as Wooldridge. The main finding in terms of the fifth research objective is to ascertain the impact that new legislation can have to ensure that rural women have the same access and entitlement to land and resources as women from urban areas. Furthermore, service-improvement programmes should be developed and micro-enterprises and agricultural and non-agricultural activities that will generate income and employment should be encouraged in order to reduce poverty in Wooldridge.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8982 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Dyubhele, Noluntu Stella |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Doctoral, DCom |
| Format | xiii, 195 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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