The critical nexus between poverty and violence is and should be an important consideration in any disaster intervention for rural women. In the context of South Africa, the historical disadvantages of many rural women still expose them to gender violence because despite having the rights, they do not have the means to acquire land. Ownership of land increases their choices and gives them power—making them potentially less vulnerable. A study in West Bengal in India and on the outskirts of Yangon in Myanmar by the UN Women (2016) observed that women who own land were eight times less likely to experiences domestic violence. Land ownership increases women’s agency to adapt to impact of natural disasters.
expressing strength and resilience. For example, a participant at KwaMashu who was in her 70s expressed these comments:
However, we were very smart before [responding to a participant, a younger aged lady who said that women are smart these days]. Our granny, our granny, I am talking about my Umama [mother], she was doing things by herself. I was asking myself when I am old, will I do this? She was feeding plenty of people in one home, even at ninety years old… That is all because of my mother's aunties; they were widows. My grandfather used to bring them in one home with the kids. But nothing was wrong with this. Their life was perfect because our aunt, her granny, was well educated and went to college to become a teacher before she got married. That is why I am saying in ages things were happening better than this. Yeah, there were floods; there were women left by men going to Joburg, working in mines, others they came back, others they do not. But life was fine. [FGD, K3(2)]
The above narrative shows that women have been demonstrating agentic abilities over the years. Taking responsibility and demonstrating resilience are not singular attributes of relatively younger women. That is, the narrative refutes the view of one participant from KwaMashu who opined that “women of nowadays are smarter than women in the past” (K4).
As noted earlier, many participants had also reiterated that given the opportunity, they would like to be educated and empowered to learn simple flood management skills. Therefore, it is important that any adaptation planning takes the women’s contextual needs into consideration, if such adaptation planning, as MacGregor 2(010) and Polack (2008) suggest, is to be “socially relevant, socially just, effective, and sustainable”.
According to MacMahon (2017, p.203), “a socially just and sustainable adaptation requires specific attention and consideration of the agency of women themselves”. Failure to do so risks maladaptation and follows enduring patterns of patriarchy and exclusion of women’s needs by municipalities and NGOs that intervene in climate-related disasters. A gender sensitive adaptation also requires an examination of Black women agency. This follows Coutlhard’s (2012) postulation that “acknowledging that there are negotiations that go on between wellbeing and resilience” that can lead women to suffer (cited in MacMahon (2017, p.203).
However, it is to be noted that while much development and empowerment literature commonly attributes agency only to those actors who take up initiatives outside of established societal structures, the understanding of agency in this study is quite different. The expression
of agency by the women in the study resonates with Rashid’s (2013) and Mahmood’s (2005, p.8) views, who have sought to conceptualise agency in a way that does not presume western, liberal conceptions of autonomy, resistance and emancipation but rather in a way that expresses resilience that sprouts from within and is shaped by one’s experiences. According to Mahmood (2005, p.18), agency should be understood not as “resistance to relations of domination but as a capacity for action that historically-specific relations of subordination enable and create”.
From the interviews, it was deduced that women themselves acknowledged and valued the contributions they make, and want to make, to family income and food security, and in adaptation processes. As discussed, during times of floods, many women were able to make some contribution through house cleaning and attempting to divert running water gutters away from flooding their houses. Many women said that their family would not be able to survive without their contributions, considering the income and resources they gathered as essential.
For instance, a participant from Ntuzuma, who was a single parent of two, when asked how she coped with juggling between her job and taking care of the household, retorted, “I have no other option, I have to be strong for my kids” (N2).
There was also a widespread view that women were active as earners outside their homes, even when this did not align with local realities. A participant in KwaMashu who narrated the experiences of her female co-workers said she had seen many of her female co-workers whose husbands were stay-at-home parents while the wife works to provide income for the family upkeep. Also, during a focus group discussion around changes in key social norms and construction of gender roles and responsibilities over the past 25 years, a participant (FGD – K3) reiterated that women’s ability to work outside the bounds of the home and village had improved over the years. As some of the participants viewed it, this was a result of improved education and empowerment of women over the years. However, as already noted, for women, their perceptions on their ability to work outside of the bounds of their home was more closely linked to their home and family requirements, in particular, the need to support their families or care for their children. Their contributions to adaptation processes also were situated within the wellbeing and responsibilities to their children, rather than a reaction to community services. One participant in KwaMashu, when asked how the flood was affecting her, spontaneously retorted, “it affects our children”. Despite the immediate concerns of women when seeking for solutions to floods is their children, there is no doubt that given appropriate education and skills, they can help proffer adaptation measures that benefit the entire
community. It is therefore important that NGOs and others that intervene in flood events put collective or community women empowerment into consideration in their adaptation planning.