RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology focuses on the research design, population and sampling, data collection instrument and data analysis.
4.7.1 Research Design
According to Ghauri and Gronhaung (2005: 56) a research design ‘is the overall plan for relating the conceptual research problem to relevant and practicable empirical research. In order to obtain required results, an exploratory research was conducted. The main aim was to formulate a problem for more precise investigation or develop working hypotheses from an operational point of view, aimed at discovering ideas and insights (Kothari, 1990). The design is less structured, simple and flexible enough to explore different aspects of the problem being studied. Typical techniques used in exploratory research include case studies and historical analysis which can provide both qualitative and quantitative data (Hussey and Hussey, 1997: 10).
A qualitative research was used in this study. The purpose of qualitative research is based on researcher immersion in the phenomenon to be studied, gather data which provide a detailed description of events, situation and interaction between people and things providing depth and detail (Cooper and Schindler, 2006, 198). There are advantages and disadvantages of
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qualitative research. One of the advantages are that it offers richness and detail, meaning that the in depth study conducted in a focused area allow for ‘thicker descriptions’ of the specific social situation (Denscombe, 2003, 280). However, the fact that results cannot be generalized from a qualitative study to a larger population is considered a fundamental weakness, according to Cooper and Schindler (2006).
4.7.2 Population and Sampling
Cooper and Schindler (2006, 714), defines population as the total collection of elements about which we wish to make some inferences. A sample is used by researchers to study a representative segment rather than the whole population because of costs, time and material constraints (Krishnaswani, 2002). According to Gill and Johnson (2010: 131) the size of the sample, together with its geographical dispersion, have a bearing on the researcher’s decisions about how respondents are to be contacted and the requisite information to be elicited. The initial target population in the study was an equal number of male and female ward councillors, where possible, from each of the local municipalities under different district and metropolitan municipalities in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The municipalities in these two different provinces are unique. For example, the municipality in KwaZulu-Natal has been chosen because it is primarily urban with a mixture of suburbs and informal settlements especially eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality. The Eastern Cape is mostly rural whereas municipalities under uMgungundlovu in KwaZulu-Natal is a mixture of semi- rural and semi-urban and was also chosen for convenience purposes as well. For the targeted municipalities, the total population is 369 ward and PR councillors.
In KwaZulu-Natal, eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and three (3) local municipalities under uMgungundlovu District Municipality were involved.
EThekwini Metropolitan Municipality has a total number of 205 councillors, where 103 are ward councillors. Eighty nine (89) of the ward councillors are males compared to 14 female ward councillors. When it comes to PR councillors the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality has 102 PR councillors of which females are more than male at 53 compared males at 49.
Seven (7) women councillors and thirteen (13) women PR councillors were interviewed.
Seventeen (17) male ward councillors and three (3) male PR councillors were interviewed.
Therefore a total number of twenty four (24) ward councillors and sixteen (16) PR councillors under eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality were interviewed.
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The municipalities under uMgungundlovu District Municipality are Msunduzi local Municipality with 73 councillors; uMkhambathini local Municipality with 14 councillors; and uMngeni Municipality with 23 councillors. Msunduzi Local Municipality elected twenty six (26) male and eleven (11) women ward councillors. Seven (7) of the eleven (11) women ward councillors participated in the study. Only five (5) male ward councillors were interviewed.
Five (5) women PR and only three (3) male PR councillors participated in the study. As mentioned above, Mkhambathini Local Municipality has no single woman ward councillor but all seven (7) wards elected male councillors. The municipality has only one (1) female PR councillor and six (6) male PR councillors. For the study, four (4) male ward councillors and were interviewed. Three (3) male PR councillors and one (1) female PR councillor were interviewed. With uMngeni Local Municipality only three (3) women and one (1) male ward councillors were interviewed. Six (6) women PR councillors were interviewed. No male PR councillor was interviewed under uMngeni Local Municipality.
Table 4.1: Councillors in each municipality
PROVINCE MUNICIPALI TY
TOTAL NO. OF WARDS
TOTAL NUMBER OF COUNCILL ORS
FEMALE WARD COUNCI LLORS 2011
MALE WARD COUNCILLO RS 2011
PR FEMALE COUNCIL LORS 2011
PR MALE COUNCILL ORS
SAMPLE FOR THE STUDY
KWAZUL U-NATAL
EThekwini Metropolitan Municipality
103 205 07 17 13 03 40
Msunduzi Local Municipality
37 73 07 05 05 05 20
UMngeni Local Municipality
12 23 03 01 06 00 10
UMkhambat hini Local Municipality
7 14 00 04 01 03 08
EASTERN CAPE
Mzimvubu Local Municipality
27 54 06 10 05 05 26
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TOTAL 186 369 23 37 30 14 104
In the Eastern Cape one (1) municipality, uMzimvubu Municipality with 54 councillors from the Alfred Nzo District Municipality participated in the study. For this study, six (6) women and ten (10) male ward councillors participated. Five (5) male and five (5) female PR councillors were interviewed.
In order to achieve the goal of the study, in KwaZulu-Natal 78 out of 341 councillors were interviewed, in the Eastern Cape, 26 out of 54 councillors took part from the only municipality that was targeted. Depending on their availability, when female ward councillors are less that the number required, all of them were interviewed. When females or males are more that the number required under each municipality, there researcher tried to find an equal number of males and females were involved as the study aims to get an equal proportion. However, this became impossible as ward councillors become engaged with their communities. The researcher interviewed councillors from different political parties as some municipalities could not indicate whether there were independent ward councillors. As a result, there were twenty three (23) women ward councillors; thirty seven (37) male ward councillors, thirty (30) women PR councillors and fourteen (14) male PR councillors that participated in the study. In relation to the number of councillors who participated, sixty (60) of them were elected ward councillor and forty four (44) were PR councillors.
4.7.3 Data Collection
In qualitative research approach, interviews are usually taken to involve some form of conversation with a purpose through engagement by interviewer and interviewee around relevant issues, topics and experiences during the interview itself (Mason, 2002: 225). In- depth semi structured interviews was adopted to allow the participants to be flexible when responding to questions. According to Kothari (2009) the in-depth interview method is the way of getting information personally from the interviewee. The researcher in this study conducted interviews face-to-face. However, where face-to-face interviews was not possible due to geographic dispersion of the respondents, technology, such as telephone was used. In this study, there was a need for basic questions to be answered pertaining to women’s representation and participation at local government level posed to targeted councillors. The researcher used an interview guide. Welman and Kruger (1999, 167), define an interview guide ‘as a list of topics (note, not specific questions) which have a bearing on the given
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theme and which the interviewer should bring up during the course of the interview’. These questions were compared with the research problem several times, partly to test the consistency between the two and partly to see whether these questions are thorough and correct enough to find out what one want (Ghauri and Gronhaug, 2005: 134).
The interview guide had 17 questions, which were mainly open ended. This assisted the researcher to obtain ample information regarding the extent to which women are represented and participating in decision-making processes at local government level under each municipality. The interview was between 40 minutes to more than an hour long, which was adequate for the necessary data to be collected. Data was also collected using secondary information such as annual municipal reports, national policies and local government prescripts and other publications.
4.7.4 Data Analysis
The data collected as indicated was qualitative such as opinion, challenges and other views of the target population regarding the study. The interviewer had to compile the complete report as soon as possible after the conclusion of the interview. Content analysis was used in this study. Bryman and Bell (2007: 726) defines content analysis as an approach to the analysis of documents. In-depth interviews which can provide good results is used in association with an interpretist view of evidence analysis, can also be used with content analysis, which is essentially a positivistic evidence (Remenyi; Williams; Money and Swartz, 2002:59). Themes were induced from the interview data. Data was presented in the form of tables, graphs and percentages.