4. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - Faculties submissions

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    A Queer Economic Study: Exploring the Economic and Social Burden of Discrimination Against Black Lesbians in Johannesburg
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Futshane, Vuyokazi; Dawson, Hannah; Francis, David
    This qualitative study explores the experiences of Black lesbians in Johannesburg, focusing on the intersections of their identity to understand the links between sexual orientation, discrimination, and the South African social and economic context. It examines the dynamics in the workplace and connects it to social relations outside of the workplace. Drawing upon intersectionality, this study reveals how race, class, gender, and sexual orientation do not operate independently but overlap simultaneously to shape Black lesbian’s experiences of discrimination. The findings highlight the varied nature of discrimination, ranging from subtle biases and microaggressions to overt forms of prejudice, and the strategic concealment of sexual orientation by some, a coping mechanism against potential biases. The study stresses the impacts of non-conformity of heteronormative expectations and underscores the importance of exploring queer economics to understand how identities intersect with socio-economic realities more comprehensively.
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    Women of color in the South African workforce: workplace bias and its consequences
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mtya, Busisiwe; Maier, Christoph
    This research study investigates the significance of women of colour in the South Africanworkplace by examining the impact of workplace bias and its consequences. The study takesan intersectional approach, considering the unique experiences and challenges faced bywomen of color in the workforce. The transactional model of coping and multi-level biastheories are employed to analyse the coping mechanisms employed by women of color andthe organizational and societal factors that contribute to bias. This research utilizes aqualitative survey methodology, specifically targeting MBA women of color from WitsBusiness School, who are employed in various industries across South Africa. The surveyaims to capture data on participants' experiences of workplace bias, coping strategies, and theconsequences of bias on their professional growth and well-being.Data collection from the survey questionnaire will be analysed using thematic analysistechniques to examine the correlation between workplace bias, coping strategies, andoutcomes such as career advancement, job satisfaction, and mental health. The study seeks toidentify the specific types of bias experienced by women of color and explore how thesebiases impact their career trajectories and overall well-being. Study findings are expected toprovide a better comprehension of the difficulties faced by women of colour in the SouthAfrican workforce and shed light on the effectiveness of coping strategies in mitigating thenegative consequences of bias. Moreover, the research aims to provide insights fororganizations and policymakers to develop interventions and strategies that promoteinclusivity and equality in the workplace, leading to a more diverse and equitable workforcein South Africa.
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    An intersectionality of race and ethnicity: the glass ceiling in the banking sector in Kenya and South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Genga, Cheryl Akinyi Margaret; Maier, Christoph
    Even though progress has been made in the Kenyan and South African banking sector, Black African women remain a minority in Top Executive leadership positions. Previous research on the “glass ceiling” focuses on Black African women as one homogenous group not acknowledging the diversity dimensions of Black African women from Africa. Invisible factors such as race and ethnicity have been stated to contribute to the glass ceiling in the banking sector, yet this has not been investigated making Black African women more invisible. This research primarily aims to provide an understanding of the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and career advancement of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. This research further aims: to describe the obstacles that Black African women still face, to analyse the diversity of Black African women in management, to identify the reasons as to why some Black African women have been able to crack the glass ceiling in the Kenyan and South African banking sector and to give recommendations to stakeholders as to how they can help crack the glass ceiling for Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. To address the research objectives, this research applied a qualitative Intercatergorical Intersectionality Approach to provide an understanding of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. This was facilitated by the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus groups that were carried out with the participantsbeing Black African women managers in the Kenyan and South African banking sector in Nairobi and Johannesburg, respectively. Data collected from the interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis in which themes and patterns were identified to address the research objectives. Firstly, findings from the research illustrated a relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender. The extent of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender was discussed by the role of race, the role of ethnicity, the intersectionality of race and gender, and the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender in the career advancement of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. Secondly, the findings identified the obstacles that Black African women still face in the banking sector, which were discussed and described into three groups: Black African women are their own worst enemies in the banking sector. Thirdly, the findings illustrated the diversity dimensions of Black African women managers from the Kenyan and South African banking sector in relation to their race, ethnicity, and the positions that they held in the banks they were working for. Fourthly, the findings highlighted reasons as to why some Black African women managers had cracked the glass ceiling (discussed with the use of the glass ceiling scale). Fifthly, the findings recommend that stakeholders have to be fully committed if they want to help Black African women crack the glass ceiling in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. In conclusion, through the findings, this research provides a conceptual framework to understand the glass ceiling in relation to the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector
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    A case study of homeless women living on the streets of Braamfontein, Johannesburg
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-03) Msimango, Thando Dimakatso; Gerrand, Priscilla
    Homelessness is a global concern. Several factors that trigger homelessness, such as natural disasters and wars, poor education, poverty, substance abuse, domestic violence and mental illness, have frequently been identified. South Africa has seen an increase in the number of people living on the streets of its major cities. This has culminated in the initiation of different research studies looking into the phenomenon of homelessness. However, there seems to be a gap in the studies looking at the plight of homeless women within the Braamfontein area of Johannesburg. Therefore, this study explored the experiences of homeless women living on the streets of Braamfontein and is based on a constructivist paradigm. The study adopted a qualitative approach, and a single case study design was adopted. Snowball sampling was used to select 13 participants who met the selection criteria. A semi-structured interview guide was used as a research tool, and one-on-one-in-depth interviews were used to collect data. Thematic analysis was also used to analyse the data. The study can contribute to developing and enhancing gender-specific intervention programmes earmarked for women living on the streets of Braamfontein in Johannesburg. It is hoped that the study might also initiate debates around the subject matter. Recommendations are made for future research.
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    A Phenomenological Analysis of the Experiences of Black Female Volunteer Lay Counsellors from Marginalised Backgrounds in Gauteng!
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-09) Naidoo, Sherwyn; Patel, Ruby
    Within the South African context, Volunteer Lay Counsellors (VLCs) play a vital role in providing mental health care. Whilst Black female VLCs from marginalised backgrounds play an essential role in providing these services, there is a paucity of research in understanding their experiences. This study utilised a qualitative approach to explore the experiences of Black female VLCs from marginalised backgrounds in Gauteng. The researcher used non-probability purposive convenience sampling to recruit four participants who volunteered at a non-profit organisation (NPO) in Gauteng. The study collected data through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Insight was provided by this research into participants’ experiences of counselling from a position of their intersectionality to those who embody different intersectional identities. This was done by locating the research within the work of intersectional theorists Crenshaw (1989, 1991), McCall (2005), Tamale (2020), and Petsko and colleagues (2022). In keeping with this, the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method allowed for an in-depth exploration of participants’ unique experiences through double hermeneutic interpretations. The themes illustrated that participants were motivated by the desperate need for access to mental healthcare in their socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. In addition, volunteering satisfied the prospects of fulfilling their career aspirations lost because of their subjection to gendered, racialised, and class oppression. Thirdly, themes highlighted how clients’ race, class, and gender impacted participants’ counselling experiences. Lastly, themes highlighted the psychological impact of counselling on participants and how helpful coping mechanisms developed from the survival of intersectional oppression and organisational training and support helped mitigate these psychological consequences. The provided understanding of participants’ experiences is essential for both praxis and policy within the area of VLC in South Africa.
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    The intersectionality of social generations, locale, and race, in diversity management in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Nayager, Kesagee; Carmichael, Terri
    This qualitative case study explores the intersectionality of social generations (known as cohorts), locale (space and place), and race, how it may influence intra-generational differences in South Africa, and the meanings that intra- generational differences may have for diversity management studies. Whilst intersectionality studies commonly focus on the intersecting of social categories such as race and gender, little is known about the intersectionality of social generations, race, and locale (space and place) in the workspace in South Africa and about intra-generational differences and the meanings it may have for studies on diversity management. Whereas the literature on the phenomenon of social generations tends to portray social generations as homogenous and as defined in the American context, this study contributes to studies on local social generations by examining how intra-generational differences may be facilitated when race, locale (space and place), and social generations intersect. The seminal theory of generations defines locale in terms of space only. By expanding on the definition of locale to include both space (a physical setting) and place (the ambience created when space is socially engineered), this study explores the Black and White lived experiences of social generations, space, and place in the workspace. A dual case study design was used, and 60 face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with Black and White employees who were purposively selected from the three social generations (Generation X, Generation Y, and Baby Boomer) working at Bombela and the Gautrain Management Agency. The research findings were thematically analysed to explore how Black and White South Africans from each social generation experience spaces and places in present-day South Africa. The analysis revealed that, in the workspace, Black and White South Africans from different social generations have a shared experience of space but varied experiences of place. Black participants from the Generation Y social generation described their financial burden of caring for extended family members who have been historically disadvantaged by the Apartheid regime in South Africa, terming it a “Black tax” from which, they say, their White counterparts are exempt. White participants from this same social generation described their guilt and remorse for the historical system of Apartheid. They spoke of the emotional burden that they carry for it caused by their Whiteness. The study coins these different Black and White social experiences as the perceived ‘financial and socio- political costs of being Black in post-Apartheid South Africa’ and the perceived ‘socio-political cost of being White in post-Apartheid South Africa’. As a contribution to diversity management studies, the study introduces the term ‘placial planning’, which entails socially re-engineering the ambience in the workplace so that Black and White South Africans from different social generations have similar experiences of place in the workplace
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    Constructing identities through discourse: Examining the textual representation of prostituted women in post-apartheid South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021) Landman, Tiaan A.
    The current study explores the intersectional social identities of four ‘prostituted women’ in post-apartheid South Africa as they are represented through discourse. The socio-cognitive model of critical discourse studies is employed to explore the way in which their social identities are represented through texts. These texts were retrieved from the online blog of a non-profit organisation, Embrace Dignity (2019), which advocates for the rights of women and girls. The texts were written to represent the personal experiences of four black women who identify as ‘prostituted’. This study found, through the engagement with biopolitical and intersectional feminist theory, that conditions which are paramount to a ‘social death’ are often proliferated for the subjects at the intersection of their gender, sex, sexual, and racial identities. Furthermore, these conditions are often concealed through the guise of class. The subjects make meaning of their social identities through a range of experiences, which are facilitated by sociohistorical systems of oppression aimed to disenfranchise feminised and blackened bodies in South Africa. These systems of oppressions are communicated through discourses of Bantu education, unskilled labour, violence, sexual perversion, limited access to services, marginal citizenship, geography, movement, and displacement, as well as a discourse of care, to name a few. The study found that these discourses are fostered and realised through the political project of domination, enforced by white heteropatriarchy that was institutionalised by the apartheid government. The study further indicates how the women who are represented by the texts, have been positioned within contexts that suppress their lives. This study emphasises the importance of exploring the intersectional social identities of black prostituted women in order to appropriately support the women within this community and their voices.
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    An intersectionality of race and ethnicity: the glass ceiling in the banking sector in Kenya and South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2021-12) Genga,Cheryl Akinyi Margaret
    Even though progress has been made in the Kenyan and South African banking sector, Black African women remain a minority in Top Executive leadership positions. Previous research on the “glass ceiling” focuses on Black African women as one homogenous group not acknowledging the diversity dimensions of Black African women from Africa. Invisible factors such as race and ethnicity have been stated to contribute to the glass ceiling in the banking sector, yet this has not been investigated making Black African women more invisible. This research primarily aims to provide an understanding of the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and career advancement of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. This research further aims: to describe the obstacles that Black African women still face, to analyse the diversity of Black African women in management, to identify the reasons as to why some Black African women have been able to crack the glass ceiling in the Kenyan and South African banking sector and to give recommendations to stakeholders as to how they can help crack the glass ceiling for Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. To address the research objectives, this research applied a qualitative Intercatergorical Intersectionality Approach to provide an understanding of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. This was facilitated by the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus groups that were carried out with the participants being Black African women managers in the Kenyan and South African banking sector in Nairobi and Johannesburg, respectively. Data collected from the interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis in which themes and patterns were identified to address the research objectives. Firstly, findings from the research illustrated a relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender. The extent of the relationship between race, ethnicity, and gender was discussed by the role of race, the role of ethnicity, the intersectionality of race and gender, and the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender in the career advancement of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. Secondly, the findings identified the obstacles that Black African women still face in the banking sector, which were discussed and described into three groups: Black African women are their own worst enemies in the banking sector. Thirdly, the findings illustrated the diversity dimensions of Black African women managers from the Kenyan and South African banking sector in relation to their race, ethnicity, and the positions that they held in the banks they were working for. Fourthly, the findings highlighted reasons as to why some Black African women managers had cracked the glass ceiling (discussed with the use of the glass ceiling scale). Fifthly, the findings recommend that stakeholders have to be fully committed if they want to help Black African women crack the glass ceiling in the Kenyan and South African banking sector. In conclusion, through the findings, this research provides a conceptual framework to understand the glass ceiling in relation to the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, and gender of Black African women in the Kenyan and South African banking sector.