“I pulled it out”: a discursive exploration of narrated accounts on decision-making and power differentials in the prescription and use of long-acting reversible contraceptives
- Authors: Ndabula, Yanela
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Contraception Social aspects South Africa , Decision making , Long-acting reversible contraception , Reproductive rights South Africa , Control (Psychology) , Feminism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/467017 , vital:76807 , DOI https://doi.org/10.21504/10962/467017
- Description: Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), viz., intrauterine devices, subdermal implants, and injectable contraceptives, are highly effective, long-term birth control methods that limit user action. Alongside the decrease in fertility rates achieved through their mass provision has been their coerced or non-consented administration to marginalised women. These highly effective yet provider-controlled and thus imposable contraceptives have been associated with problematic classed, raced, ageist, and ableist promotions. A critical lens that inquires into their endorsement within clinical practice is thus necessary. The bulk of literature evidencing reproductive injustices in relation to fertility control through LARC technologies emanates from the US and UK contexts. Not much research on the South African context has explored how contraceptive decision-making within clinical interactions shapes LARC uptake despite usage increasing through the years. Using a poststructural, postcolonial feminist framework alongside a reproductive justice stance, this study explores health providers’ and contraceptive users’ narrations of the prescription and usage of LARC technologies alongside how such talk emplots women who use, continue, or discontinue using these contraceptive technologies. In addition, the power relations (re)produced in the participants’ talk that maintain or constrain coloniality and reproductive justice with implications for certain people’s reproductive choices/rights were explored. To do so, I used data from 72 semi-structured interviews with contraceptive users (51) and healthcare providers (21). A combination of stratified purposive, convenient, and snowball sampling was used to sample the providers and users of LARC recruited within a city, town, and village. To elicit stories about healthcare providers’ and LARC users’ narrative emplotments in the prescription and usage decisions about LARC, semi-structured interviewing was used. The questions asked were open-ended and loosely structured around LARC technologies, the decisions that cohere around them, and the makers of those decisions. In analysing the data, I fused Parker's (1992) criteria for locating discourses with Barker’s (2017) method for determining the potential for emplotment into narratives. Findings suggest that participants framed contraceptive usage as either a personal, imposed, or shared decision. In personal decisions, the feminisation of contraceptive use emerged, with study, work, and relationship stability statuses requiring participants to solely and prudently self-discipline towards contraceptive uptake so as to match usage with reproduction desire. When decisions were imposed (subtly or openly), a passive role was assumed as female guardians (mothers, grandmothers, or aunts) recommended, pushed, and coerced health users (particularly young women) towards uptake. While the contraceptive users themselves were placed on the margins in decision-making, resisting the imposed decisions was difficult since participants’ “risk” of pregnancy was reportedly foregrounded. Shared decisions pointed to less one-sided accounts of decision-making. These decisions were enacted in relationships and were neither siloed nor imposed. Here, sexual partners, parents, or healthcare providers dialogically negotiated contraceptive uptake, and the possibilities for non-use were availed. Data from healthcare providers showed that non-use for young and postpartum women was not an option. In addition, healthcare providers either formed alliances with the LARC users themselves or concerned parents to support or push for contraceptive provision. Supportive alliances enabled secret uptake or ongoing contraceptive usage among some contraceptive users, thus resisting pronatalism or one-sided intentions for childbearing within intimate partnerships. These healthcare providers emplotted themselves as empowering contraceptive users. Alliances that pushed for contraceptive uptake were formed with guardians/parents upon menarche or in case the of rape. In overriding consent within these alliances, healthcare providers avoided being rendered responsible or blameworthy for early pregnancies in the face of the constructed risk used to emplot young women. This over-commitment to providing contraceptives has differing implications for women’s sexual agency and sexual health interventions. The data also describe decisions to use contraception as expert-led, patient-led, or collaborative decisions between health users and healthcare providers. Through the information and decision-making was expert-led micro-narrative, a medical discourse constituting use as a necessity and non-use as a risk emerged. A patient autonomy and a my body, my choice discourse informed the information and decision-making was patient-led micro-narrative; here, healthcare providers were either detached or excluded from decision-making as health users assumed more active roles in their own contraceptive care decisions. In collaborative decisions, both parties negotiated (non)use, with LARC users providing their embodied experiences and healthcare providers availing medical knowledge in reaching decisions. The study argues for a reproductive justice framework to underpin the signifier “fertility control”, showing how the threat of degeneration informs responses to reproduction by iii identifying and amplifying deficiency and negative outcomes while masking positive outcomes among certain women. It then creates a fertile ground for the re-engineering and recentring of colonialist thinking and its product, the restraining of the agency of fertile beings it renders “less developed”. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
- Authors: Ndabula, Yanela
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Contraception Social aspects South Africa , Decision making , Long-acting reversible contraception , Reproductive rights South Africa , Control (Psychology) , Feminism
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/467017 , vital:76807 , DOI https://doi.org/10.21504/10962/467017
- Description: Long-Acting Reversible Contraception (LARC), viz., intrauterine devices, subdermal implants, and injectable contraceptives, are highly effective, long-term birth control methods that limit user action. Alongside the decrease in fertility rates achieved through their mass provision has been their coerced or non-consented administration to marginalised women. These highly effective yet provider-controlled and thus imposable contraceptives have been associated with problematic classed, raced, ageist, and ableist promotions. A critical lens that inquires into their endorsement within clinical practice is thus necessary. The bulk of literature evidencing reproductive injustices in relation to fertility control through LARC technologies emanates from the US and UK contexts. Not much research on the South African context has explored how contraceptive decision-making within clinical interactions shapes LARC uptake despite usage increasing through the years. Using a poststructural, postcolonial feminist framework alongside a reproductive justice stance, this study explores health providers’ and contraceptive users’ narrations of the prescription and usage of LARC technologies alongside how such talk emplots women who use, continue, or discontinue using these contraceptive technologies. In addition, the power relations (re)produced in the participants’ talk that maintain or constrain coloniality and reproductive justice with implications for certain people’s reproductive choices/rights were explored. To do so, I used data from 72 semi-structured interviews with contraceptive users (51) and healthcare providers (21). A combination of stratified purposive, convenient, and snowball sampling was used to sample the providers and users of LARC recruited within a city, town, and village. To elicit stories about healthcare providers’ and LARC users’ narrative emplotments in the prescription and usage decisions about LARC, semi-structured interviewing was used. The questions asked were open-ended and loosely structured around LARC technologies, the decisions that cohere around them, and the makers of those decisions. In analysing the data, I fused Parker's (1992) criteria for locating discourses with Barker’s (2017) method for determining the potential for emplotment into narratives. Findings suggest that participants framed contraceptive usage as either a personal, imposed, or shared decision. In personal decisions, the feminisation of contraceptive use emerged, with study, work, and relationship stability statuses requiring participants to solely and prudently self-discipline towards contraceptive uptake so as to match usage with reproduction desire. When decisions were imposed (subtly or openly), a passive role was assumed as female guardians (mothers, grandmothers, or aunts) recommended, pushed, and coerced health users (particularly young women) towards uptake. While the contraceptive users themselves were placed on the margins in decision-making, resisting the imposed decisions was difficult since participants’ “risk” of pregnancy was reportedly foregrounded. Shared decisions pointed to less one-sided accounts of decision-making. These decisions were enacted in relationships and were neither siloed nor imposed. Here, sexual partners, parents, or healthcare providers dialogically negotiated contraceptive uptake, and the possibilities for non-use were availed. Data from healthcare providers showed that non-use for young and postpartum women was not an option. In addition, healthcare providers either formed alliances with the LARC users themselves or concerned parents to support or push for contraceptive provision. Supportive alliances enabled secret uptake or ongoing contraceptive usage among some contraceptive users, thus resisting pronatalism or one-sided intentions for childbearing within intimate partnerships. These healthcare providers emplotted themselves as empowering contraceptive users. Alliances that pushed for contraceptive uptake were formed with guardians/parents upon menarche or in case the of rape. In overriding consent within these alliances, healthcare providers avoided being rendered responsible or blameworthy for early pregnancies in the face of the constructed risk used to emplot young women. This over-commitment to providing contraceptives has differing implications for women’s sexual agency and sexual health interventions. The data also describe decisions to use contraception as expert-led, patient-led, or collaborative decisions between health users and healthcare providers. Through the information and decision-making was expert-led micro-narrative, a medical discourse constituting use as a necessity and non-use as a risk emerged. A patient autonomy and a my body, my choice discourse informed the information and decision-making was patient-led micro-narrative; here, healthcare providers were either detached or excluded from decision-making as health users assumed more active roles in their own contraceptive care decisions. In collaborative decisions, both parties negotiated (non)use, with LARC users providing their embodied experiences and healthcare providers availing medical knowledge in reaching decisions. The study argues for a reproductive justice framework to underpin the signifier “fertility control”, showing how the threat of degeneration informs responses to reproduction by iii identifying and amplifying deficiency and negative outcomes while masking positive outcomes among certain women. It then creates a fertile ground for the re-engineering and recentring of colonialist thinking and its product, the restraining of the agency of fertile beings it renders “less developed”. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Psychology, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
The representation of women in Njabulo Ndebele’s The Cry of Winnie Mandela and Lauretta Ngcobo’s And They Didn’t Die: an African Feminist Perspective
- Authors: Mavuma, Nonkululo Liyasakha
- Date: 2021-03
- Subjects: Feminism , Literature--Women authors
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22379 , vital:52033
- Description: This study seeks to interrogate the presentation of women in selected South African texts written by a male and female South African author, whose central thematic thrust is the role of women in their day-to-day struggles during the apartheid era. An in-depth analysis of the texts enables this dissertation to provide a comparative study of the representation of women in both texts. The study also examines the kinds of fictional representations that are found in the texts and their significance in the emancipation journey of women from the supremacy of apartheid and customary laws. This study is informed by African feminism, focusing on the stance of Obioma Nnaemeka and Molara Ogundipe-Leslie. African feminism is chosen as a framework for exploring the texts because it is a theory shaped by the resistance of African women against Western rule. The theory embraces debates about motherhood and the contestation about the roles of motherhood in a society. The theory ponders how motherhood is a source of empowerment, liberation and achievement in African societies. The theory affirms that women should equip themselves for effective resistance and participation in societal transformation. These two theorists are relevant because they are both committed to a critical investigation that seeks to differentiate present social conditions and their historical development. Their research examines the conceptualization of frameworks aimed at a social and cultural change grounded on the local and everyday experiences of women. The first chapter provides a broad overview of the study. This chapter highlights the significance of the study in terms of what it can contribute to scholarship on the representation of women in South African texts that reflect on the apartheid era, by analysing them through the lens of African feminism. The second chapter provides context to the critical reception of both novels, which outlines the focus of the research. This chapter also provides the theoretical framework, which provides an overview of the relevant theory on African Feminism that informs the study and highlights Nnaemeka and Ogundipe-Leslie’s concepts of ‘Nego-Feminism’ and ‘Stiwanism’. The third chapter focuses on analysing the portrayal of women in the texts, examining their interactions with one another, with men, and the subjugation they endure because of living in a patriarchal society. The fourth chapter provides a comparative study of the texts. Finally, the last chapter provides a conclusion, analysing the research findings. The study thus brings to the fore the similarities and differences in the representation of women in South African texts that were written in different decades by a male and female writer, that are nevertheless highlighting the same issues. Secondly, in exploring how women in the texts challenge the status quo, this research will hopefully expose how women are not constantly compliant and embracing marginalization as some texts present them but can be seen as having emancipative agency. The study, in particular, provides an analysis of the representation of women in the two novels, specifically, intending to compare and contrast the modalities of their representation in these works. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-03
- Authors: Mavuma, Nonkululo Liyasakha
- Date: 2021-03
- Subjects: Feminism , Literature--Women authors
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/22379 , vital:52033
- Description: This study seeks to interrogate the presentation of women in selected South African texts written by a male and female South African author, whose central thematic thrust is the role of women in their day-to-day struggles during the apartheid era. An in-depth analysis of the texts enables this dissertation to provide a comparative study of the representation of women in both texts. The study also examines the kinds of fictional representations that are found in the texts and their significance in the emancipation journey of women from the supremacy of apartheid and customary laws. This study is informed by African feminism, focusing on the stance of Obioma Nnaemeka and Molara Ogundipe-Leslie. African feminism is chosen as a framework for exploring the texts because it is a theory shaped by the resistance of African women against Western rule. The theory embraces debates about motherhood and the contestation about the roles of motherhood in a society. The theory ponders how motherhood is a source of empowerment, liberation and achievement in African societies. The theory affirms that women should equip themselves for effective resistance and participation in societal transformation. These two theorists are relevant because they are both committed to a critical investigation that seeks to differentiate present social conditions and their historical development. Their research examines the conceptualization of frameworks aimed at a social and cultural change grounded on the local and everyday experiences of women. The first chapter provides a broad overview of the study. This chapter highlights the significance of the study in terms of what it can contribute to scholarship on the representation of women in South African texts that reflect on the apartheid era, by analysing them through the lens of African feminism. The second chapter provides context to the critical reception of both novels, which outlines the focus of the research. This chapter also provides the theoretical framework, which provides an overview of the relevant theory on African Feminism that informs the study and highlights Nnaemeka and Ogundipe-Leslie’s concepts of ‘Nego-Feminism’ and ‘Stiwanism’. The third chapter focuses on analysing the portrayal of women in the texts, examining their interactions with one another, with men, and the subjugation they endure because of living in a patriarchal society. The fourth chapter provides a comparative study of the texts. Finally, the last chapter provides a conclusion, analysing the research findings. The study thus brings to the fore the similarities and differences in the representation of women in South African texts that were written in different decades by a male and female writer, that are nevertheless highlighting the same issues. Secondly, in exploring how women in the texts challenge the status quo, this research will hopefully expose how women are not constantly compliant and embracing marginalization as some texts present them but can be seen as having emancipative agency. The study, in particular, provides an analysis of the representation of women in the two novels, specifically, intending to compare and contrast the modalities of their representation in these works. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-03
Investigating the feminist significance of Lars von Trier's representation of women in his Golden Heart Trilogy (1996/1998/2000) and Antichrist (2009)
- Authors: Evans, Melissa Albie
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Motion picture producers and directors , Feminism , Anti-feminism , Second-wave feminism , Trier, Lars von, 1956-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8409 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011634 , Motion picture producers and directors , Feminism , Anti-feminism , Second-wave feminism , Trier, Lars von, 1956-
- Description: Despite critics‟ negative appraisal of Lars Von Trier's Antichrist (2009) for its ostensible misogyny, a deep thematic resonance exists between its representation of women as historical victims of patriarchal discourse, and the positive representations of women as Christ-like figures found in his Golden Heart Trilogy (1996/1998/2000). Arguably, it is important to recognize this, because these films together comprise an exercise in cinematic resistance to the narratives of the „backlash‟ against women's rights, thematized by Susan Faludi in her Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women; resistance which is undermined when these films are considered disparate or incongruous.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
- Authors: Evans, Melissa Albie
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Motion picture producers and directors , Feminism , Anti-feminism , Second-wave feminism , Trier, Lars von, 1956-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8409 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1011634 , Motion picture producers and directors , Feminism , Anti-feminism , Second-wave feminism , Trier, Lars von, 1956-
- Description: Despite critics‟ negative appraisal of Lars Von Trier's Antichrist (2009) for its ostensible misogyny, a deep thematic resonance exists between its representation of women as historical victims of patriarchal discourse, and the positive representations of women as Christ-like figures found in his Golden Heart Trilogy (1996/1998/2000). Arguably, it is important to recognize this, because these films together comprise an exercise in cinematic resistance to the narratives of the „backlash‟ against women's rights, thematized by Susan Faludi in her Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women; resistance which is undermined when these films are considered disparate or incongruous.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2012
An investigation of the continued relevance of Faludi's Backlash (1992) for the negotiation of gender identity, in the wake of the "Lara Croft" phenomenon
- Authors: Van Antwerpen, Lee-Anne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Gender identity in mass media , Feminism , Feminism -- Public opinion , Women -- Social conditions , Women -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8390 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1129 , Gender identity in mass media , Feminism , Feminism -- Public opinion , Women -- Social conditions , Women -- Psychology
- Description: In the 1990s, Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women (1992) was arguably of signal importance in the thematization of the limits imposed by the media on the negotiation of gender identity. However, the utilization of Faludi’s various analyses, in the interest of rendering social critique, has become progressively more problematic during the first decade of the 21st century. This is because her analyses engage neither with the development of media technologies subsequent to the early 1990s, nor with the way in which such technological developments now engage audiences on a greater multiplicity of levels than before, in a manner that consequently stands to inform their subjectivity to a degree hitherto unimagined. (A good example of the latter would, of course, be the proliferation of interactive exchanges on the World Wide Web). As such, in the light of such technological developments, this treatise is orientated around an investigation of the continued relevance of Faludi’s Backlash (1992) for the negotiation of gender identity in the contemporary era. In particular, its focus falls on West’s film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), which is considered against the backdrop of the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider phenomenon, which encompasses sequels to the film, online interactive sites, graphic novels, figurines, and video games, among other products. This investigation draws on the reception theory of, on the one hand, Adorno and Horkheimer, and, on the other hand, Stuart Hall.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Van Antwerpen, Lee-Anne
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Gender identity in mass media , Feminism , Feminism -- Public opinion , Women -- Social conditions , Women -- Psychology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8390 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1129 , Gender identity in mass media , Feminism , Feminism -- Public opinion , Women -- Social conditions , Women -- Psychology
- Description: In the 1990s, Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women (1992) was arguably of signal importance in the thematization of the limits imposed by the media on the negotiation of gender identity. However, the utilization of Faludi’s various analyses, in the interest of rendering social critique, has become progressively more problematic during the first decade of the 21st century. This is because her analyses engage neither with the development of media technologies subsequent to the early 1990s, nor with the way in which such technological developments now engage audiences on a greater multiplicity of levels than before, in a manner that consequently stands to inform their subjectivity to a degree hitherto unimagined. (A good example of the latter would, of course, be the proliferation of interactive exchanges on the World Wide Web). As such, in the light of such technological developments, this treatise is orientated around an investigation of the continued relevance of Faludi’s Backlash (1992) for the negotiation of gender identity in the contemporary era. In particular, its focus falls on West’s film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), which is considered against the backdrop of the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider phenomenon, which encompasses sequels to the film, online interactive sites, graphic novels, figurines, and video games, among other products. This investigation draws on the reception theory of, on the one hand, Adorno and Horkheimer, and, on the other hand, Stuart Hall.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
An exploration of female physicality and psyche and how these inform art-making
- Authors: Poole, Tanya Katherine
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: Women artists , Women artists -- Psychology , Rego, Paula -- Interviews , Feminism , Women -- Sexual behavior , Sherman, Cindy , Saville, Jenny, 1970-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2419 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002215 , Women artists , Women artists -- Psychology , Rego, Paula -- Interviews , Feminism , Women -- Sexual behavior , Sherman, Cindy , Saville, Jenny, 1970-
- Description: This thesis proposes that female physicality informs the psyche and thus in turn, art-making. My argument will be shown to be apposite and informative to the discussion of the work of Paula Rego, Jenny Saville and Cindy Sherman. Furthermore such an understanding is helpful to a reading of my practice. In examining issues of identity, which contribute to the formulation of a distinctly female psyche, I will base my critique on the philosophical positions of Sartre, de Beauvoir and Paglia.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2000
- Authors: Poole, Tanya Katherine
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: Women artists , Women artists -- Psychology , Rego, Paula -- Interviews , Feminism , Women -- Sexual behavior , Sherman, Cindy , Saville, Jenny, 1970-
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MFA
- Identifier: vital:2419 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002215 , Women artists , Women artists -- Psychology , Rego, Paula -- Interviews , Feminism , Women -- Sexual behavior , Sherman, Cindy , Saville, Jenny, 1970-
- Description: This thesis proposes that female physicality informs the psyche and thus in turn, art-making. My argument will be shown to be apposite and informative to the discussion of the work of Paula Rego, Jenny Saville and Cindy Sherman. Furthermore such an understanding is helpful to a reading of my practice. In examining issues of identity, which contribute to the formulation of a distinctly female psyche, I will base my critique on the philosophical positions of Sartre, de Beauvoir and Paglia.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2000
Women's understandings and experiences of empowerment in an organisation: a qualitative feminist approach
- Authors: Jamieson, Sally Anne
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Employee empowerment , Women -- Employment -- Social aspects , Feminism , Psychology, Industrial
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2997 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002506 , Employee empowerment , Women -- Employment -- Social aspects , Feminism , Psychology, Industrial
- Description: This study explores women's understandings and experiences of empowerment so that they could empower themselves by using their own knowledge to see through factors that serve to disempower them. At a time when empowerment and its future is under intense discussion in South Africa, it seems wise to move away from quantitative studies which do not facilitate the development of comprehensive theory in industrial psychology. This study provides a qualitative feminist analysis of women's understandings and experiences of empowerment in an organisation. Written protocols, interviews and a workshop were used as data collection tools and seven women from one organisation participated in the study. The research revealed that women understand and experience empowerment in a number of ways. These understandings and experiences are affected by various factors: organisational factors; personal characteristics and abilities; their relationship with others at work and at home; and societal factors such as double standards for men and women and role expectations. The breadth and scope of the results imply that any attempt to empower women should include relational, motivational and feminist perspectives on power and empowerment. In addition, the results indicate that providing a space in which the women could explore the network of disempowering practices in their lives, was empowering for the women. Through the process of the research, the participants' understandings of empowerment evolved from viewing empowerment as something that is predominantly external (for example, influenced by others and organisational factors) to something that is internal (for example, influenced by motivational factors). This study cautions against seeing empowerment as something that is solely internal because by doing so women are placing the responsibility of empowerment upon themselves thus setting themselves up for failure. However, through the process of seeing empowerment as internal, the women were able to move towards a feminist understanding of empowerment in which not only is empowerment external ("out there") or internal ("within") but includes acknowledging one's own responsibility in empowerment as well as external societal factors that serve to hamper women.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1999
- Authors: Jamieson, Sally Anne
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Employee empowerment , Women -- Employment -- Social aspects , Feminism , Psychology, Industrial
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2997 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002506 , Employee empowerment , Women -- Employment -- Social aspects , Feminism , Psychology, Industrial
- Description: This study explores women's understandings and experiences of empowerment so that they could empower themselves by using their own knowledge to see through factors that serve to disempower them. At a time when empowerment and its future is under intense discussion in South Africa, it seems wise to move away from quantitative studies which do not facilitate the development of comprehensive theory in industrial psychology. This study provides a qualitative feminist analysis of women's understandings and experiences of empowerment in an organisation. Written protocols, interviews and a workshop were used as data collection tools and seven women from one organisation participated in the study. The research revealed that women understand and experience empowerment in a number of ways. These understandings and experiences are affected by various factors: organisational factors; personal characteristics and abilities; their relationship with others at work and at home; and societal factors such as double standards for men and women and role expectations. The breadth and scope of the results imply that any attempt to empower women should include relational, motivational and feminist perspectives on power and empowerment. In addition, the results indicate that providing a space in which the women could explore the network of disempowering practices in their lives, was empowering for the women. Through the process of the research, the participants' understandings of empowerment evolved from viewing empowerment as something that is predominantly external (for example, influenced by others and organisational factors) to something that is internal (for example, influenced by motivational factors). This study cautions against seeing empowerment as something that is solely internal because by doing so women are placing the responsibility of empowerment upon themselves thus setting themselves up for failure. However, through the process of seeing empowerment as internal, the women were able to move towards a feminist understanding of empowerment in which not only is empowerment external ("out there") or internal ("within") but includes acknowledging one's own responsibility in empowerment as well as external societal factors that serve to hamper women.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1999
- «
- ‹
- 1
- ›
- »