Gender, community and identity : women and Afrikaner nationalism in the Volksmoeder discourse of Die Boerevrou (1919-1931)

Includes bibliographies.As a feminist exploration of the problematic relationship between Afrikaans women and Afrikaner nationalism, this thesis is primarily concerned with the construction of the social identities of Afrikaans women between 1919 and 1931, the crucial formative years of Afrikaner nationalism. The relationship between women and Afrikaner nationalism is thus addressed by an investigation at the level of intellectual history. The emergence of Afrikaner nationalism at the beginning of the 20th century was accompanied by the articulation of a distinctive gender discourse, the study of which is central to this thesis. Within this discourse, which may be termed the "volksmoeder" discourse, a new identity and new roles were contrived for Afrikaner women. We first investigate the social and historical context in which the discourse was generated and then analyse the "volksmoeder" discourse itself by focusing on texts from Die Boerevrou, a women's magazine launched by Mabel Malherbe in 1919. Rather than taking the Die Boerevrou-texts for granted or seeing them as simple reflections of reality, they are investigated as constructions. The questions of why these particular constructions had appeared in that specific context and what ends they achieved are posed. Rather than simply taking the discursive constructions at face value they are construed as "answers" to certain underlying social and historical issues. On a theoretical level the problem of the construction of gender and ethnic identities is informed by recent work in the field of discourse analysis, while the imagining or invention of nation-communities is discussed with reference to the work of Benedict Anderson, Ernst Gellner, Eric Hobsbawm and Tom Nairn. The investigation of Die Boerevrou-texts as particular articulations of the volksmoeder discourse shows how the social identities of Afrikaans women were socially constructed in the volksmoeder discourse. It suggests that the social subjectivities of Afrikaans women were by no means simple or transparent. In the texts of Die Boerevrou it becomes clear that even while being shaped by Afrikaner nationalism, women themselves were active in the shaping of Afrikaner nationalism. While they were constituted as subjects in the anti-feminist discourse of Afrikaner nationalism, they remained mobile within this discourse: always negotiating, planning, creating and articulating new identities and roles for themselves. The image of women as passive victims of a male Afrikaner discourses is thus denied. However, it is asserted that the volksmoeder discourse as a gender discourse can and should be severely criticised from a feminist perspective

“YOU GET ANGRY INSIDE YOURSELF”: LOW-INCOME ADOLESCENT SOUTH AFRICAN GIRLS’ SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE OF DEPRESSION

Informed by the feminist social constructionist approach this study aimed at exploring the subjective experiences of depression of low-income South African adolescent girls. Participants in this study (girls between the ages of 12 and 14) live in a semi-rural low-income coloured community in the Western Cape. Participants were familiar with the concept of depression, but it seemed that for them the central emotion associated with depression was anger, which often manifested in destructive behaviours. Furthermore, participants seemed to construct depression as a relational problem, suggesting that psychotherapy may be indicated as an important intervention strategy

THE STRESS OF CARING: THE MANIFESTATION OF STRESS IN THE NURSE-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP

Following global trends in health reforms, South Africa has followed a primary health care approach since the eighties (Petersen & Swartz, 2002; Van der Walt, 1998). The implementation of this approach at first was regarded as selective and piecemeal (Van der Walt, 1998), but with the emergence of a democratically elected government in 1994 a series of health reforms focused on equalising the coverage of service (Van Wyk, 2005). The South African health system can thus best be described as one that has been characterised by time-consuming restructuring processes aimed at the implementation of a comprehensive primary health care service. Within this system all health-care professionals have been exposed to stressful working conditions. However, mental health professionals (psychologists and social workers) agree that the impact of these conditions on nurses is specifically important as they form “…the largest cadre of frontline health providers in South Africa” (Van der Walt & Swartz, 2002:1002)

‘I could have done everything and why not?’: Young women’s complex constructions of sexual agency in the context of sexualities education in Life Orientation in South African schools

Progressive policies protecting women’s rights to make reproductive decisions and the recent increase in literature exploring female sexual agency do not appear to have impacted on more equitable sexual relations in all contexts. In South Africa, gender power inequalities, intersecting with other forms of inequality in society, pose a challenge for young women’s control over their sexual and reproductive health. The article focuses on a group of young Coloured South African women’s understandings of their sexual agency, in an attempt to explore how it is explicitly and implicitly shaped by school Life Orientation (LO) sexuality programmes. We found young women constructed their agency as simultaneously enabled and constrained in complex ways: on the one hand, the explicit communication was that they should have agency and take responsibility for themselves sexually, whereas the implicit communication seemed to convey that what they really thought and felt about sex and sexuality was not important. In addition, heteronormative gender roles, in which men are assumed to take the lead in sexual matters, appear to be reproduced in LO sexuality education messages and further complicate young women’s constructions of their sexual agency. The implications of these findings for LO sexuality programmes are discussed

‘I could have done everything and why not?’: Young women’s complex constructions of sexual agency in the context of sexualities education in Life Orientation in South African schools

Progressive policies protecting women’s rights to make reproductive decisions and the recent increase in literature exploring female sexual agency do not appear to have impacted on more equitable sexual relations in all contexts. In South Africa, gender power inequalities, intersecting with other forms of inequality in society, pose a challenge for young women’s control over their sexual and reproductive health. The article focuses on a group of young Coloured South African women’s understandings of their sexual agency, in an attempt to explore how it is explicitly and implicitly shaped by school Life Orientation (LO) sexuality programmes. We found young women constructed their agency as simultaneously enabled and constrained in complex ways: on the one hand, the explicit communication was that they should have agency and take responsibility for themselves sexually, whereas the implicit communication seemed to convey that what they really thought and felt about sex and sexuality was not important

‘… a huge monster that should be feared and not done’: lessons learned in sexuality education classes in South Africa

Research has foregrounded the way in which heterosexual practices for many young people are not infrequently bound up with violence and unequal transactional power relations. The Life Orientation sexuality education curriculum in South African schools has been viewed as a potentially valuable space to work with young people on issues of reproductive health, gender and sexual norms and relations. Yet, research has illustrated that such work may not only be failing to impact on more equitable sexual practices between young men and women, but may also serve to reproduce the very discourses and practices that the work aims to challenge. Cultures of violence in youth sexuality are closely connected to prevailing gender norms and practices which, for example, render women as passive victims who are incapable of exercising sexual agency and men as inherently sexually predatory. This paper analyses the talk of Grade 10 learners in nine diverse schools in two South African provinces, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape, to highlight what ‘lessons’ these young people seem to be learning about sexuality in Life Orientation classes. We find that these lessons foreground cautionary, negative and punitive messages, which reinforce, rather than challenge, normative gender roles. ‘Scare’ messages of danger, damage and disease give rise to presumptions of gendered responsibility for risk and the requirement of female restraint in the face of the assertion of masculine desire and predation. We conclude that the role which sexuality education could play in enabling young women in particular to more successfully negotiate their sexual relationships to serve their own needs, reproductive health and safety, is undermined by regulatory messages directed at controlling young people, and young women in particular – and that instead, young people’s sexual agency has to be acknowledged in any processes of change aimed at gender equality, anti-violence, health and well-being

‘… a huge monster that should be feared and not done’: lessons learned in sexuality education classes in South Africa

Research has foregrounded the way in which heterosexual practices for many young people are not infrequently bound up with violence and unequal transactional power relations. The Life Orientation sexuality education curriculum in South African schools has been viewed as a potentially valuable space to work with young people on issues of reproductive health, gender and sexual norms and relations. Yet, research has illustrated that such work may not only be failing to impact on more equitable sexual practices between young men and women, but may also serve to reproduce the very discourses and practices that the work aims to challenge. Cultures of violence in youth sexuality are closely connected to prevailing gender norms and practices which, for example, render women as passive victims who are incapable of exercising sexual agency and men as inherently sexually predatory. This paper analyses the talk of Grade 10 learners in nine diverse schools in two South African provinces, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape, to highlight what ‘lessons’ these young people seem to be learning about sexuality in Life Orientation classes. We find that these lessons foreground cautionary, negative and punitive messages, which reinforce, rather than challenge, normative gender roles. ‘Scare’ messages of danger, damage and disease give rise to presumptions of gendered responsibility for risk and the requirement of female restraint in the face of the assertion of masculine desire and predation. We conclude that the role which sexuality education could play in enabling young women in particular to more successfully negotiate their sexual relationships to serve their own needs, reproductive health and safety, is undermined by regulatory messages directed at controlling young people, and young women in particular – and that instead, young people’s sexual agency has to be acknowledged in any processes of change aimed at gender equality, anti-violence, health and well-being

Masculinity, sexuality and vulnerability in 'working' with young men in South African contexts: 'you feel like a fool and an idiot...a loser'

South Africa has seen a rapid increase in scholarship and programmatic interventions focusing on gender and sexuality, and more recently on boys, men and masculinities. In this paper, we argue that a deterministic discourse on men's sexuality and masculinity in general is inherent in many current understandings of adolescent male sexuality, which tend to assume that young women are vulnerable and powerless and young men are sexually powerful and inevitably also the perpetrators of sexual violence. Framed within a feminist, social constructionist the oretical perspective, the current research looked at how the masculinity and sexuality of South African young men is constructed, challenged or maintained. Focus groups were conducted with young men between the ages of 15 and 20 years from five different schools in two regions of South Africa, the Western and Eastern Cape. Data were analysed using Gilligan's listening guide method. Findings suggest that participants in this study have internalised the notion of themselves as dangerous, but were also exploring other possible ways of being male and being sexual, demonstrating more complex experiences of manhood. We argue for the importance of documenting and highlighting the precariousness, vulnerability and uncertainty of young men in scholarly and programmatic work on masculinities.IBS

Die subjektiewe ervaring van depressie onder Suid-Afrikaanse vroue in 'n lae-inkomste gemeenskap

CITATION: Lourens, M. & Kruger, L.-M. 2013. Die subjektiewe ervaring van depressie onder Suid-Afrikaanse vroue in 'n lae-inkomste gemeenskap. Social Work, 49(2):248-270, doi:10.15270/49-2-68.The original publication is available at http://socialwork.journals.ac.zaIn verskeie internasionale en Suid-Afrikaanse epidemiologiese studies is bevind dat vroue byna twee keer meer geneig is om aan depressie te ly as mans (Accort, Freeman & Allen, 2008; Kessler, 2003; Ngcobo & Pillay, 2008). Volgens die Wêreldgesondheids-organisasie (2006) is depressie die grootste oorsaak van siekteverwante ongeskiktheid onder vroue wêreldwyd (Dukas, 2009; Lafrance & Stoppard, 2006).http://socialwork.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/68Publisher's versio

You get angry inside yourself : low-income adolescent subjective experience of depression

CITATION: Meyer, K. & Kruger, L. 2015. You get angry inside yourself : low-income adolescent South African girls' subjective experience of depression. Social Work, 51(2):174-191, doi:10.15270/51-2-441.The original publication is available at http://socialwork.journals.ac.zaInformed by the feminist social constructionist approach this study aimed at exploring the subjective experiences of depression of low-income South African adolescent girls. Participants in this study (girls between the ages of 12 and 14) live in a semi-rural low-income coloured community in the Western Cape. Participants were familiar with the concept of depression, but it seemed that for them the central emotion associated with depression was anger, which often manifested in destructive behaviours. Furthermore, participants seemed to construct depression as a relational problem, suggesting that psychotherapy may be indicated as an important intervention strategy.Publisher's versio