School of Social Sciences (ETDs)

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Gender-based violence in Sri Lanka: Has Sustainable Development Goal 5 been an effective policy tool?
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Jurgensen, Kim; Zähringer, Natalie
This research paper is an investigation of gender-based violence and gender inequality in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka was chosen as a case study because it ended the 26-year civil war in 2009, and has had over a decade since this reset moment to rebuild the country. The paper builds on feminist research which says that high levels of gender inequality give rise to high levels of violence against women. The research is based on a gender structural inequality theoretical framework, and uses the Sustainable Development Goals (specifically SDG 5 which talks to gender equality) as the measurements of these structures. While there has been work done on various aspects of development in Sri Lanka, the purpose of this research project was to pull together the targets under SDG 5 and, using a process tracing methodology, demonstrate their effect on levels of violence against women. The research stated upfront that data for the dependent variable (violence against women) was already known, and that data would be sought for the independent variables (i.e. the remaining targets under SDG 5) to show correlation between the DV and IVs. The research showed that there has been poor implementation for most of the targets under SDG 5, and as such the outcomes were mostly negative. These findings were in line with the theoretical framework of gender structural inequality, and the feminist writings of the link between gender inequality and violence against women. It was interesting to see that on two main areas i.e. sexual health and education (which does not fall under SDG 5), Sri Lanka has almost complete gender parity. This demonstrated that women’s economic power and participatory parity (i.e. participating at senior level in the labour market and in government) were decisive factors in entrenching conservative societal views that undermine women’s agency and entrenches unequal power dynamics in the home, where most of the violence occurs.
In Search of Blackwomen’s Voices – Engendering South African Liberation Movement
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Rodwell, Karabo-Maya; Shange, Kholeka
The Black Consciousness Movement played a vital role in South Africa’s fight for liberation against the apartheid government. A significant part of this movement were the Black women that risked their lives for the country. Despite the work that they have all done and continue to do, Black women in this movement have faced multiple challenges related to their gender. I am interested in sharing the experiences of these women to add to the growing literature on the role and impact of Black women in South Africa’s history. To do this, I conducted interviews with six Black women over six months, between July 2022 and January 2023, all of whom have been involved in the Black Consciousness Movement. The participants in this research represent a small glimpse into the experiences of Black women in South African liberation movements. This research report follows the lived experiences of Black women in South Africa’s liberation movement, looking specifically at the Black Consciousness Movement. My research found that while each of these women were involved in the movement at different time periods, and in different areas of South Africa, many of their experiences overlap. I have broken these findings into three major themes. The first ethnographic chapter follows their early consciousness building and when they believe they came into consciousness. This chapter explores the formative years of Black women in the Black Consciousness Movement, namely who and or what influenced their political consciousness. The second ethnographic chapter examines Black women’s subjective interpretations of Black Consciousness and the impact this has on the self. While they were all part of the same movement they all seemed to have experienced the ideology differently. The third and final ethnographic chapter interrogates the marginalisation of Black women in the BCM. Here I discuss how women joined this structure for the emancipation of Black people at large, as well as connections to the ideology, and yet many felt that as women they were not always allowed the space to fully participate.
Rethinking the Logics of the Sex/Gender Anatomical Schema
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Nqambaza, Palesa Rose; Dube, Siphiwe
This dissertation is an appraisal of the dominant gender discourse(s) in selected South African anthropological, gender and feminist texts. It challenges the uncritical adoption of colonial sex/gender frameworks when making sense of indigenous ways and modes of being and proposes an Afrocentric alternative that goes beyond bio-logical frameworks. This study is two pronged. Firstly, it problematises the uncritical application of Western feminist theories that have tended to impose European realities on the African context. Secondly, it mines the indigenous archive for Afrocentric ideas that contribute to creating a uniquely African theory of subject formation that considers aspects important to the African world-sense such as seniority, kinship status and ancestral links. I make use of critical discourse analysis to analyse the dominant discourse(s) and knowledge on sex and gender within the context of what is today known as South Africa. I do this employing the Azanian philosophical tradition as the theoretical framework that informs the perspective from which I read and make sense of these discourses, using a mixture of textual analysis, linguistics, archival work, and historical method. Based on my reading of dominant gender discourses against textual, linguistic and historical evidence, I make the following arguments. Firstly, I problematise the blanket usage of the conceptual category of ‘woman’ to refer to colonised subjectivities. I demonstrate that Black womxn have been discursively constructed as existing outside the bounds of the conceptual category ‘woman’ who is the key subject of feminist theorising. Secondly, I demonstrate that the logics of the sex/gender anatomical schema, that organises men and women in a hierarchy, cannot account for indigenous modes of social organising. I maintain that African subjectivities are fluid, complex and contingent, depending on aspects such as one’s seniority, kinship status and ancestral links. Likewise, I invoke the institution of ubungoma as an additional site to demonstrate the inadequacy of the sex/gender anatomical framework in making sense of sangoma subjectivities. I also problematise the tendency to use LGBTQ languaging as an alternative in making sense of the institution of ubungoma. I maintain that while noble, this alternative framing is also implicated in underscoring the existence of a coherent sex/gender regime within which the institution of ubungoma is then assumed to be ‘queer’. I maintain that there is a pressing need to mine indigenous linguistic archives for alternative ways of wording indigenous subjectivities in ways that are not distortive, nor mimic Eurocentric versions.
The role of Mzansi Magic’s ‘Makoti, Are You the One’ in facilitating gender discourses
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Vabaza, Ncumisa; Muparamoto, Nelson; Vanyoro, Kudzaiishe
The South African Bill of rights prohibits all forms of discrimination based on gender and sex. The government through the National Development Plan encourages stakeholder involvement in the promotion of gender equality. Yet, the experiences of women in various spheres reveal that normative patriarchal socialization persists. This research evaluates the role of local media in facilitating gender discourses that permeate modern-day South African society. This research employs critical discourse analysis (CDA) and critical diversity literacy (CDL) to interpret the dominant gender discourses on the locally produced reality television show Makoti Are You the One? CDA and CDL are used to interpret the representation techniques used to empower and disempower men and women respectively. The research adopts a qualitative research approach, specifically non-participatory observation to comprehend the dynamics in the relationships between the show’s male-female participants as well as the inter-group relationships between female participants on the show. Using discourse, framing and gender theories the study provides an understanding of the techniques used by the media in representing gender, and how these contribute to the co-construction of social meanings assigned to gender. The findings show a persistent imbalance in the representation of gender through local programming, by hegemonically positioning men in superior standing to women who are represented as subjects in their homes and the broader society. These imbalances are contrary to the ideals of gender equality.
The ‘Gay Plague’: Community responses to AIDS in South Africa 1982-1987
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Chernis, Linda; Glaser, Clive
South Africa became the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the 1990s, and still has the highest HIV rate in the world. Consequently, much has been written about HIV/AIDS in South Africa across a variety of academic disciplines, though with very little emphasis on the first five years (1982-1987) in which the epidemic first manifested in South Africa. This thesis explores these early years from the perspective of the “gay community” in which the virus was first identified, while also unpacking what is meant by community in this context. How did gay organisations, activists and individuals respond, rally and organised in a time of fear, oppression, ignorance and upheaval? Initial responses to AIDS fell on fledgling, mostly white, gay community organisations, and a few healthcare workers. By analysing the services and programmes initiated from this (admittedly disparate and problematic) group, and by placing these responses within the broader context of AIDS internationally, and apartheid locally, we can see a very specific and complex local response develop. This laid the groundwork for what was to become the much larger-scale gay and HIV/AIDS organising of the 1990s, which is generally where most researchers pick up the thread. Certainly, no previous research has sought to include all aspects of this organising, including fundraising, counselling, the gay press, public education initiatives, and caregiving. An intensive audit of the relevant material in the collections of the GALA Queer Archive in Johannesburg, including new additions, has contributed to a more in-depth understanding of this time period.
Their Narrative: A Feminist Study Examining The Everyday Lives of Migrant Girls Who Sell Sex In Chipinge, Zimbabwe
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-08) Nyahuma, Gloria Nyaradzo; Oliveira, Elsa
This thesis explores the everyday experiences of unaccompanied migrant girls who sell sex in Chipinge, a small town in eastern Zimbabwe. The participants of this qualitative study were four adolescent girls, ages 16 to 18 years old, of Mozambique descent. Guided by feminist standpoint theory, intersectionality, and adolescent theory, the study examined three main areas: (1) factors that lead adolescent girls to migrate unaccompanied; (2) trajectories of unaccompanied migrant girls into selling sex; and (3) how unaccompanied migrant girls who sell sex access their daily needs in their host countries. Drawing on arts-based research (ABR), the main methods used were storytelling and mapping. Unstructured interviews were also conducted with each participant after the ABR phase of the study ended. Although each participant had unique circumstances that led them to migrate unaccompanied, most explained family circumstances such as, death of parents, violence in the home, and poverty as being immediate drivers for migrating to Zimbabwe alone. Each participant also had unique experiences that influenced their decisions to sell sex, but social networks and exploitation in other informal livelihood activities played a major role. Selling sex was the primary livelihood strategy that the participants in this study engaged, which enabled them to access their basic needs of accommodation, food, and childcare. Whilst being an important livelihood strategy, selling sex exposed the participants to risks of violence and health, including HIV.
Wartime Rape, Gender, and Militarism: The Bukavu People’s Conceptualisation of the Emergence of Wartime Rape in the 2004 Kivu Conflict in Contrast to the 1996 First Congo War
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03-15) Mushagalusa, Alice Karhikalembu; Stevens, Garth; Von Holdt, Karl
For more than a decade, armed conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been characterised by widespread wartime rape against civilians. The purposeful utilisation of wartime rape as a weapon of war has owed to the country unflattering labels, such as the “rape capital of the world, the worst place to be a woman, or again the dark hole”. The armed unrest in the DRC is rooted in the Belgian colonisation’s land administration policies that shaped some groups as native (autochthones) while constructing others as foreigners. Following an anti-war feminist perspective, this PhD explores the Bukavu people’s conceptualisation of the emergence of wartime rape in the 2004 Kivu Conflict in contrast to the 1996 First Congo War. I used participatory research methods, as dictated by the Covid-19 pandemic, to collect the data through focus groups and in-depth individual interviews with ordinary community members, former military officers, members of the civil society and community leaders in Bukavu (South Kivu Province, eastern DRC). The collected data made it possible to firstly recognise the absence of wartime rape as a weapon of war in the 1996 First Congo War; and to show that wartime rape has not always been ubiquitous in the DRC but became a lexicon that the perpetrators utilised to place divergent claims related to their customary land, military, political power ambitions, gendered ethnic identity, and citizenship aspirations. Secondly, the data allowed for disaggregating wartime rape into three categories based on the perpetrators’ motivations and claims. The thesis maintains that the Hutu-dominated Interahamwe militia, also recognised as the main authors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, resorted to rape in the eastern DRC for revenge and to (re)masculinise their troops while feminising the Congolese state. Next, this study demonstrates that the Rally for Congolese Democracy rebels, which claimed the Tutsi Congolese ethnicity, strategically resorted to wartime rape to claim customary land rights and citizenship recognition. Following, this thesis puts forward that the Mai-Mai militia, seen as native, erpetrated wartime rape to claim military respect and recognition while furthering the political agendas of their patrons. I maintain that patriarchy – as the shared norm between the perpetrators, the state and the victims (women, girls, men and boys) – makes it possible for wartime rape to be utilised as a lexicon and a destructive weapon against the victims’ sexual subjectivities and the whole community’s symbolic order. Hence, this study articulates a three-fold argument. This thesis firstly argues that the 2004 wartime rape is rooted in the Belgian colonisation and its lingering effects on forms of ethnicity, gender, land distribution and recognition of political rights in the present. Next, this thesis argues that wartime rape is a strategic weapon perpetrators utilise for revenge and to claim military recognition. Lastly, this study argues that the extreme violence of rape as an act of war aims to destroy the victims’ subjectivities and their community’s symbolic order. As such, this thesis weaves together three levels of analysis and examines wartime rape as multi-dimensional violence that interlaces into one act of wartime rape: the historical dimension (centring on land), the broader strategic considerations, and the destruction of victims’ subjectivities and the community’s symbolic order. At the same time, the combination of these dimensions varies considerably between the Hutu-dominated Interahamwe militia, the Rally for Congolese Democracy rebels, and the Mai-Mai militias – that is, the context even in one province within DRC produces variations in motive and form.
Women in Union Leadership: A case study of the Ghana Public Service Workers’ Union (PSWU.
(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Eva, Oteng; Sefalafa, Thabang
This research examines the extent to which affirmative policies (gender mainstreaming, gender equality) lead to substantive improvements in the position of women within the Public Services Workers Union (PSWU) in Ghana. The research data for this study was collected using two methods: An online survey that focused on the experience and perceptions of 46 women leaders in the National Executive Council (NEC). The research is a mixed method in the sense that it generated both qualitative and quantitative data. Semi-structured interviews online with 7 key stakeholders, including women and men, in the national office. Data was triangulated to deal with issues of validity and reliability. Analysis is framed under how the equality plan has been implemented in PSWU and the challenges in terms of women’s leadership efforts in decision-making. It was observed that improvement in women participation in the union is because of gender mainstreaming policy and interventions. This proves an argument in a similar study by Britwun et al (2014) that when women are significantly represented in leadership especially in the mainstream there is a possibility of achieving negotiations for women related issues that is perceived as cost to the organisation. This cost includes childcare facilities and additional maternal/paternal leave (Britwum et al 2014). The survey also projects that there are women leaders who play double roles in the union and at home which affects performances and contributions to union affairs as stated by Kirton and Healy (2008,4) in their research stated that “paid work and work in the home constitute a ‘double burden’ and trade union participation (and other such voluntary activities) adds another ‘burden’ for many women''. The trend of domestic or household responsibilities should be carefully studied and used as a tool to address the issue of women’s lack of interest and commitment to union activities and other leadership roles. iii In this regard, increase in women's representation increases women’ consciousness about their demands and strives to realize them.

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Browsing School of Social Sciences (ETDs) by SDG "SDG-5: Gender equality"

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