Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Gender Studies in the College of Humanities, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. It is submitted for the degree of Master of Arts at the College of Humanities, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Background
South African Office on the Status of Women: 2000) and the Ministry of Women, Children and Persons with Disabilities' 2010 report to the African Union on the progress made in implementing the African Heads of State. Fundamental to the implementation of these declarations at the local level are support groups for women.
Research Proble m
Following legislative provisions, the state and its gender machinery embraced and required to be aligned with global initiatives on gender equality.4 Initiatives such as the South African National Policy Framework for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality of 2000. Although it is not the intention of this research to examine the effectiveness and the success of the Women's Charter for Effective Equality over the last 17 years, the study of women's support groups will serve as a benchmark for the success sought to be achieved.
Objectives of Research
Using an intersectional theoretical framework, I will also examine and explain different constructs of support groups and their identities. This research supports such an assertion, as while (the research) seeks to identify barriers to the effective functioning of support groups and thus opportunities for transformation, a critical perspective and approach permeates it.
Structure of Thesis
A detailed description of the research undertaken (as described on page 16 of this law) will be given in chapter four. Descriptions of data collected at each stage of the research will be provided with relevant methodologies.
Narrative style of Thesis
The number and nature of identified support groups (pseudonyms if necessary) will be provided. A review of this theory will be conducted to place this research within this theoretical framework.
Introduction to Fe minism
- Liberal Fe minism
- Marxist Feminis m
- Socialist Feminis m
- Radical Fe minism
- Black Feminis m
- African Fe minis m
Radical feminism saw patriarchal society and dominance as responsible for the oppression of women as a whole. Black feminism, intertwined with the civil rights movement and the turbulent history of the United States in the 1960s, sought to recognize the oppression of women.
Constructing a Discourse on South African Feminis m
Tensions within South African Fe minism
Conflict in ideology manifested in different perceptions of women's issues and issues of national liberation. The conference agreed (UWO, 1984a) that: these women's problems – childcare, contraception and so on are part of a larger system.
Poststructuralist Feminism
Foucault’s Discourse and Powe r
A Poststructuralist approach for Support Groups
Support groups thus make themselves agents of change by enabling change in the lives of the women who seek their help. The challenge, however, lies in examining the identified support groups to see how their interventions impact women's lives at a fundamental, transformative level.
Criticis m of Poststructuralism
The approach used in narrative therapy therefore offers valid possibilities for use in women's support groups. If these support groups adopt the principles or similar approaches of narrative therapy, the possibilities for transformation are very real.
Language and Powe r: A South African Discourse
Both of these approaches place support groups as a central factor in the intended role of the state. The construction of the support groups' identities is situated within a dialectical relationship with the state.
Locating Research in Theoretical Frame work
A Chronology of Support groups pre -1994
Else Schreiner, who was a member of the local group and who later became national chairman, became synonymous with the national women's group. According to Verbeek (1998), the Pietermaritzburg Indian Women's Association played a central role in the local activities of the passive resistance campaign initiated by the NIC.
Support Groups post -1994
As the short chronology shows, with the emergence of the country's political liberation in 1994, the identity of women's groups took on different constructs. The intersection of gender and sexuality is a non-existent discourse in the historical annals of urban support groups.
Evidence of Positive Inte rvention by Support Groups
I have also briefly cited cases of support groups which support the argument about the need and importance of support groups for women. All the research methods and instruments used in this research are linked to the central issue of women's support groups in Pietermaritzburg.
Period of Research, Sampling and Methods
The quantitative tools deployed in the form of the police statistics obtained were intended to strengthen the qualitative findings of the study and not to serve as independent measurable quantitative data. The sample size of each method and instrument used in the study is indicated accordingly in the description and explanation of each method and instrument.
Police Statistics
Adve rtisements in Local Ne wspapers
Importantly, it was also intended that I would then become aware of support groups who did not know me through active responses from relevant women. In addition, I may also be given information about public awareness and knowledge of women's support groups in general.
Request to Radio Stations
It was also anticipated that readers would be able to respond at their leisure and not feel pressured for a more 'immediate' response; that the request could also be spread through word of mouth and interpersonal communication. Lee cites Halala's claim that “personal ads are a useful source of information about individuals' interests and choices.” Thus, it was intended that such information would contribute to the understanding and analysis of support groups and the related objectives of this study.
Questionnaires
Questionnaires for the Public
This technique ensured the use of a stratification sampling technique, where an attempt was made to elicit responses via the questionnaires from appropriate numbers of subgroups of the total population of women to ensure a broad representation of respondents and their responses (Mouton 2006: 191). 60 employees in the supermarket, which I can frequently fill in for them and women in their local community.
Questionnaires for Support Groups/Centres
30 Sister to distribute to students in the school where she teaches, to distribute to women in their communities. 30 Worker at (my) home (more than 10 years) who distributes to women in his community and workplace.
Questionnaires for Clients from Support groups
The aim of this part of the research was not only to identify support groups for women in the city, but to examine the services of each group, to establish the modus operandi of each, including strategies of advocacy, to overcome the limitations understanding what the groups face. and finally to establish the connection between the public's knowledge and perception of support groups with the latter itself. Moreover, an investigation of the support groups provides an opportunity to map the evolution of support groups in the city, as well as to examine the extent to which women (support groups) are agents of change.
Inte rvie ws with Personnel from Support groups
My claim that the state's dominant discourse on gender issues has a crucial impact on the level of local support groups will be fully explored in the next chapter, hence the need to obtain information from these groups. Open questions according to the specifications of the questionnaire (Mouton were asked to allow the dynamics and discourse of each group/center to unfold naturally through the language and constructions of the interviewee.
Limitations of Research (Instruments)
The academic nature of the language used in the questionnaires could prevent some potential respondents from participating in this form of research due to a lack of understanding of the content. It is admitted that this research is limited from the specific perspective of the dynamics of support provision by religious and cultural groups.
Concluding re marks about Research and Methodology
This chapter summarizes the findings of each method, with key details. An interpretive, reflexive approach is used to analyze the data to evaluate and construct its meaning, and to offer critical strategies for transformation of gender issues (Grbich 2004: 71; Denzin and Lincoln: 2003).
Police Statistics
Analysis of Data
The lack of resources available to the police service itself reduces its ability to provide more effective and wider support to women who report cases of crimes committed against them. All rape cases are handled by a single unit of police services (whether involving children or adults), who then refer the victims or survivors to the Child Advocacy Center.
Feedback from Advertisements in Local news pape rs
Analysis
I further believe that responses to these ads, including 'non-responses', may also reflect the views of the respondents to the ads as well as those who 'don't'. One of the reasons is similar to that offered by a member of the public in response to a request to fill in a questionnaire (4.4), which was that "people don't like to fill in questionnaires." Different motives and principles may seem to support these two requests.
Request to Radio Stations
Public Response to Questionnaires
Women who had attended Support Groups
Among them, help was sought from support groups for domestic abuse (2), general counseling (3), legal assistance (2), general information (3), financial assistance (2), trauma (2) and medical assistance (1) . The age groups of the women indicated the use of support groups across the age spectrum.
Women who had not attended Support Groups
Many people do not have information about women's support groups, so they take them for granted. I suggest that the government should provide support groups for women (sic) because they are destroyed and abused in various ways.
Response from Support Groups
Summary of Responses from Support Groups
Fundamental to the operation of the support groups as part of a broader social service is the support of the state. Therefore, shortcomings in terms of service delivery by support groups must be seen as shortcomings of the state.
Summary of Responses from Clients of Support Groups
Inte rvie ws with Personnel from Groups
Analysis of Intervie ws
She openly shared with me not only the experiences of the center and its challenges, but also some of her private experiences. Interviews with a staff member from another center revealed a lack of full knowledge of the center's services and procedures, and although she was empathetic to me and my work, I did not get a sense of a full organization and structure of the center services rendered.
Overall Analysis
So non-verbal cues such as body language and acoustic cues provide me with greater understanding of messages than simply what is spoken and have informed my interpretation and understanding of the interview processes. Although a major factor that hinders the functioning of the groups is the lack of resources, especially financial resources, the dominant factor that emerged in the findings is the lack of support from the state.
Inte rsectionalities of Race, Gende r, Class and ‘Context Consciousness’
However, a study of intersectionality within support groups cannot be undertaken in isolation from the state even in the South African context. Again, I place the onus and question the same on the part of the state to interrogate identity differences in women and provide the necessary intervention in relation to these differences.
Challenges experienced by Support Groups
Considering the development of support groups in the city since the creation of the first one, this claim is neither unrealistic nor impossible. The personal internal dynamics of the support groups made it impossible to obtain further information from the clients of all groups.
Limitations/Gaps in Services of Groups
A Poststructuralist Analysis of the Role of the State in interventions of
When seen in the context of support services being the responsibility of the state, support and enabling action by the state for support. More crucially to the approach to this research, this analysis has shown that the dominant patriarchal constructions of the state support its hegemonic relations with agencies of transformation.
A Poststructuralist Analysis of Research and Findings
Five of the eight women who had participated in support groups said 'NO' to the question: "Do you feel that the state does enough to support support groups for women?". 78% of the 119 women who had not participated in support groups said 'NO' to the question: "Do you feel that the state does enough to support women's support groups?".
Challenges experienced in Research
So I believe that the radio station does not consider gender and women's issues as important, hence disregarding my request. I am therefore of the opinion that the radio station in question with its claim to a large number of listeners in the province of KwaZulu Natal validates SANEF's findings.
Implications for future Research
Furthermore, the users of support groups/centers can be provided with opportunities to influence the social discourse. A group of support group users in the UK have compiled a list of general improvements they would like to see within the support system.
Final Reflections
Local support groups/centres therefore have a responsibility to think about what users are actually looking for when they go to the centres. This further resonates with Haag et al.'s reminder that support groups are at a crucial time in women's lives and can only provide effective help if they are tailored to women's needs.
Afterword
1997. "Women's Organizations in the Western Cape: Vehicles of Gender Struggle or Instruments of Subjugation?" in the Agenda. Do you think the country is 'doing enough' to address or support gender/women's issues through its support for support groups?
