Marginalized By Race And Place: Occupational Sex Segregation In Post-Apartheid South Africa

Racial and gender disparities found in most other societies are particularly magnified in South Africa where the marginalized social group constitutes a numerical majority of the population. These factors, along with region, are dominant axes of inequality in the country. However, empirical knowledge of the interplay between these systems of social inequality in determining employment outcomes remains somewhat scant. This dissertation addresses that gap by studying occupational sex segregation across various racial groups using multilevel modeling techniques. Individual-level data from the 2001 Census and magisterial-level data from survey data aggregations and published sources are used. I first study the influence of (1) individual (education and migration), (2) household characteristics (family status), and (3) contextual factors (urbanization, former homeland residence, industrial composition, and culture) on women\u27s likelihood of being in white- and blue-collar male-dominated occupations. I then investigate whether the effects of these individual and contextual characteristics on occupational placement vary across the four main racial groups (i.e., black African, Coloureds, Asian-Indians, and Whites)? That is, do these factors interact differently for different racial groups? Results from the analyses indicate that high concentrations of service industries tend increased women\u27s opportunities for holding white-collar male-dominated occupations. On the other hand, while black African women\u27s placement in male-dominated jobs is not influenced by urbanization, women of other races, particularly Coloureds and Whites, fare better in urban districts. In fact, residence in and around homelands was particularly significant for black Africans who are still trying to gain a foothold in mainstream South African society. In the unique case of Indian women, labor supply factors such as education, have greater predictive power than macro-level demand factors. In terms of human supply variables, educational attainment improves women\u27s chances of holding male-dominated occupations among white collar workers across all racial groups; the effect is not as strong among blue-collar workers. However, returns to education are not as high as expected. Migration is significant for only black Africans, highlighting the legacy of apartheid. Finally, women\u27s marital status and associated short-term child bearing obligations do not act as impediments to their occupational choices

The roles of gender, class, housing, and social integration on residential satisfaction and mobility in post-apartheid Cape Town, South Africa

Households experiencing residential satisfaction are joint headed, homeowners residing at their current dwelling for a long duration, well integrated within the community, and possessing low intraurban mobility, high percent of dependents, low crowding, high incomes, and low percent of adults employed. Households satisfied with their community are home renters residing at their current dwelling for a short time and who have experienced downward residential mobility; they have high incomes, low percent of employed adults, and are socially integrated. Finally, mobility plans are positively shaped by high intraurban mobility, homeownership, low housing type mobility, high crowding, residential improvements, high level of occupational skill, high percent of adults employed, low membership in organizations, and dissatisfaction with housing and community. Explanations for these results are advanced, and implications and policy issues are discussed.Forced displacement of Black households due to apartheid laws in South Africa has resulted in race, class, and gender based occupational and residential segregation. Despite the Reconstruction and Development Program, households still possess low socioeconomic status while dissatisfaction with housing and community conditions persist. Migration and social networks have emerged as necessary survival strategies. This study draws upon the political economy perspective in examining causal influences of groups\u27 differential access to resources and opportunities (especially housing). It also uses the structuration theory in investigating the interplay of household and prevailing social relations in shaping the unit\u27s livelihood strategies, particularly social networks and mobility plans. Recognizing the importance of structure and agency, it is postulated that key socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors will shape household social integration, and collectively, these determine satisfaction with housing and community and migration plans. Quantitative data on 807 households, drawn from a metropolitan wide survey of Cape Town, South Africa, were used to analyze hypothesized relationships. The survey was commissioned by the Western Cape Community-based Housing Trust in 1995. Multivariate binary logistic regression is the principal statistical analysis procedure employed. Social integration is significantly and positively affected by female headship, as well as age, class, experience in urban center, and duration of current residence

Moving beyond the mother-child dyad: Women\u27s education, child immunization, and the importance of context in rural India

The argument that maternal education is critical for child health is commonplace in academic and policy discourse, although significant facets of the relationship remain empirically and theoretically challenged. While individual-level analyses consistently suggest that maternal education enhances child health outcomes, another body of literature argues that the observed causality at the individual-level may, in fact, be spurious. This study contributes to the debate by examining the contextual effects of women\u27s education on children\u27s immunization in rural districts of India. Multilevel analyses of data from the 1994 Human Development Profile Index and the 1991 district-level Indian Census demonstrate that a positive and significant relationship exists between the proportion of literate females in a district and a child\u27s complete immunization status within that district, above and beyond the child\u27s own mother\u27s education as well as district-level socioeconomic development and healthcare amenities. However, results also indicate that the effect of maternal education cannot be downplayed. Thus, increasing women\u27s literacy at the community level, in addition to mother\u27s access to higher education—such as matriculation and beyond—at the individual-level, emerge as effective developmental tools

Not fit to associate with me : contradictions of race, class, and gender in Charlotte Brontë\u27s Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte\u27s Jane Eyre is upheld by feminist critics as a revolutionary tract that expresses strong sympathy for the powerless and condemns the brutality of colonialism, the harmfulness of upper-class exploitation, and the suppression of women within the Victorian patriarchal home. It is viewed as Bronte\u27s attempt to liberate women from the Victorian patriarchal bourgeois ideology that enslaved and repressed their basic flesh and blood character, silencing them into asexual, passive, and domestic Angels in the House. The assertion of women\u27s right to work, intellectual freedom, and economic independence through the ethics of education, hard work, and autonomy and an eschewal of high-class idleness are said to lie at the heart of this inspiring tale.;And finally, Jane\u27s behavior is viewed as a classic instance of the revolted slave bursting her bonds of oppression and taking the dangerous position of celebrating individual freedom from the point of view of women, the working class, and slaves. However, if these were Bronte\u27s original intentions, they get subverted through the course of the narrative, and Jane\u27s movement from feminine anger to feminine acceptance of the masculine order, from low-class sympathy to low-class repudiation, and from black to white seems conclusive. Thus, despite feminist assertions, Jane Eyre concludes with the reaffirmation of white, upper-class, Christian male ideology within the Victorian British home, society, and Empire making it vulnerable to criticisms of racism, classism, and sexism

Demographic change and response: social context and the practice of birth control in six countries

This paper expands on Kingsley Davis’s demographic thesis of change and re- sponse. Specifically, we consider the social context that accounts for the primacy of particular birth control methods that bring about fertility change during specific time periods. We examine the relevance of state policy (including national family planning programs), the international population establishment, the medical profession, organized religion, and women’s groups using case studies from Japan, Russia, Puerto Rico, China, India, and Cameroon. Some of these countries are undergoing the second demographic transition, others the first. Despite variations in context, heavy reliance on sterilization and/or abortion as a means of birth control is a major response in most of these countries. The key roles of the medical profession and state policy are discussed, along with the general lack of influence of religion and of women’s groups in these countries

"Not fit to associate with me": contradictions of race, class, and gender in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre

Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is upheld by feminist critics as a revolutionary tract that expresses strong sympathy for the powerless and condemns the brutality of colonialism, the harmfulness of upper-class exploitation, and the suppression of women within the Victorian patriarchal home. It is viewed as Bronte's attempt to liberate women from the Victorian patriarchal bourgeois ideology that enslaved and repressed their basic flesh and blood character, silencing them into asexual, passive, and domestic "Angels in the House." The assertion of women's right to work, intellectual freedom, and economic independence through the ethics of education, hard work, and autonomy and an eschewal of high-class idleness are said to lie at the heart of this inspiring tale.;And finally, Jane's behavior is viewed as a classic instance of the revolted slave bursting her bonds of oppression and taking the dangerous position of celebrating individual freedom from the point of view of women, the working class, and slaves. However, if these were Bronte's original intentions, they get subverted through the course of the narrative, and Jane's movement from feminine anger to feminine acceptance of the masculine order, from low-class sympathy to low-class repudiation, and from black to white seems conclusive. Thus, despite feminist assertions, Jane Eyre concludes with the reaffirmation of white, upper-class, Christian male ideology within the Victorian British home, society, and Empire making it vulnerable to criticisms of racism, classism, and sexism.</p

The roles of gender, class, housing, and social integration on residential satisfaction and mobility in post-apartheid Cape Town, South Africa

Households experiencing residential satisfaction are joint headed, homeowners residing at their current dwelling for a long duration, well integrated within the community, and possessing low intraurban mobility, high percent of dependents, low crowding, high incomes, and low percent of adults employed. Households satisfied with their community are home renters residing at their current dwelling for a short time and who have experienced downward residential mobility; they have high incomes, low percent of employed adults, and are socially integrated. Finally, mobility plans are positively shaped by high intraurban mobility, homeownership, low housing type mobility, high crowding, residential improvements, high level of occupational skill, high percent of adults employed, low membership in organizations, and dissatisfaction with housing and community. Explanations for these results are advanced, and implications and policy issues are discussed.Forced displacement of Black households due to apartheid laws in South Africa has resulted in race, class, and gender based occupational and residential segregation. Despite the Reconstruction and Development Program, households still possess low socioeconomic status while dissatisfaction with housing and community conditions persist. Migration and social networks have emerged as necessary survival strategies. This study draws upon the political economy perspective in examining causal influences of groups' differential access to resources and opportunities (especially housing). It also uses the structuration theory in investigating the interplay of household and prevailing social relations in shaping the unit's livelihood strategies, particularly social networks and mobility plans. Recognizing the importance of structure and agency, it is postulated that key socioeconomic and sociodemographic factors will shape household social integration, and collectively, these determine satisfaction with housing and community and migration plans. Quantitative data on 807 households, drawn from a metropolitan wide survey of Cape Town, South Africa, were used to analyze hypothesized relationships. The survey was commissioned by the Western Cape Community-based Housing Trust in 1995. Multivariate binary logistic regression is the principal statistical analysis procedure employed. Social integration is significantly and positively affected by female headship, as well as age, class, experience in urban center, and duration of current residence.</p

Moving beyond the mother-child dyad: Women's education, child immunization, and the importance of context in rural India

The argument that maternal education is critical for child health is commonplace in academic and policy discourse, although significant facets of the relationship remain empirically and theoretically challenged. While individual-level analyses consistently suggest that maternal education enhances child health outcomes, another body of literature argues that the observed causality at the individual-level may, in fact, be spurious. This study contributes to the debate by examining the contextual effects of women's education on children's immunization in rural districts of India. Multilevel analyses of data from the 1994 Human Development Profile Index and the 1991 district-level Indian Census demonstrate that a positive and significant relationship exists between the proportion of literate females in a district and a child's complete immunization status within that district, above and beyond the child's own mother's education as well as district-level socioeconomic development and healthcare amenities. However, results also indicate that the effect of maternal education cannot be downplayed. Thus, increasing women's literacy at the community level, in addition to mother's access to higher education--such as matriculation and beyond--at the individual-level, emerge as effective developmental tools.Women's education Child immunization India Multilevel modeling

Divisions & Integrations : The Expansion of Global Capitalism

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