Research Articles (Women & Gender Studies)
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Shamu, Simukai; Abrahams, Naeema; Zarowsk, Christina; Shefer, Tamara; Temmerman, Marleen (Public Library of Science, 2013)[more][less]
Abstract: objective To describe the occurrence, dynamics and predictors of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy, including links with HIV, in urban Zimbabwe. methods A cross-sectional survey of 2042 post-natal women aged 15–49 years was conducted in six public primary healthcare clinics in low-income urban Zimbabwe. An adapted WHO questionnaire was used to measure IPV. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with IPV and severe (six or more episodes) IPV during pregnancy. results 63.1% of respondents reported physical, emotional and/or sexual IPV during pregnancy: 46.2% reported physical and/or sexual violence, 38.9% sexual violence, 15.9% physical violence and 10% reported severe violence during pregnancy. Physical violence was less common during pregnancy than during the last 12 months before pregnancy (15.9% [95% CI 14.3–17.5] vs. 21.3% [95% confidence interval 19.5–23.1]). Reported rates of emotional (40.3% [95% CI 38.1–42.3] vs. 44.0% [95% CI 41.8–46.1]) and sexual violence (35.6% [95% CI 33.5–37.7] vs. 38.9% [95% CI 36.8– 41.0]) were high during and before pregnancy. Associated factors were having a younger male partner, gender inequities, past abuse, problem drinking, partner control of woman’s reproductive health and risky sexual practices. HIV status was not associated with either IPV or severe IPV, but reporting a partner with a known HIV status was associated with a lower likelihood of severe abuse. conclusion The rates of IPV during pregnancy in Zimbabwe are among the highest ever reported globally. Primary prevention of violence during childhood through adolescence is urgently needed. Antenatal care may provide an opportunity for secondary prevention but this requires further work. The relationship between IPV and HIV is complex in contexts where both are endemic. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/910 Files in this item: 1
ShamuIPVDuringPregnacy2013.pdf (107.6Kb) -
Clowes, Lindsay; Shefer, Tamara (UNISA Press, 2013)[more][less]
Abstract: Knowledge production in South Africa remains framed by the legacies of apartheid. Developing emerging authors and local knowledges through co-authorship between supervisors and post graduate students is an important strategy aimed at challenging these legacies. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with students and supervisors to explore their experiences of co-authorship. Findings indicate that while insisting that co-authoring has value, several students also note their discomfort with elements of the process. While insisting students’ work be disseminated, and expressing willingness to engage in the mentoring that this requires, supervisors also articulate discomfort with processes offering opportunities for personal career development. Given increasing emphasis on co-authorship we suggest the power inequalities expressed through the supervisor/student relationship be made more transparent. Knowledge production through co-authorship is best served by collaborations between authors who are more equally empowered and who are more critically aware of the challenges such collaborations are likely to present. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/909 Files in this item: 1
ClowesCo-publishing2013.pdf (520.2Kb) -
Bhana, Deevia; Clowes, Lindsay; Morrell, Robert; Shefer, Tamara (UNISA Press, 2008)[more][less]
Abstract: Since the promulgation of the South African Schools Act in 1 996, it has become illegal to exclude pregnant girls from school. Influenced by feminist research, policy has sought to assist pregnant girls and young parents to continue and complete their schooling on the understanding that having children often terminates school-going, limiting future employment and work opportunities. This focus seeks to examine how the new policy has been understood and implemented. The authors focus on the views and experiences of principals and teachers, as they are the authorities at school with the responsibility for ensuring that the policy is implemented. The paper draws on qualitative data collected by a larger study on being and becoming a parent at a diverse group of schools in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape Province. The authors investigate the extent to which schools' responses to pregnancy and parenting reflect and/or reproduce normative gender roles and practices with respect to schooling and parenting in contemporary South Africa. The paper also shows that despite familiar stereotypes about young parents and pregnancy both teachers and principals take their educational responsibilities seriously. They do care and do try to help. But many teachers are judgmental and moralistic, particularly in response to young girls. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/836 Files in this item: 1
BhanaPregnentGirls2008.pdf (812.0Kb) -
Clowes, Lindsay; Shefer, Tamara; Fouten, Elron; Vergnani, Tania; Jacobs, Joachim (Taylor & Francis, co-published with Unisa Press, 2009)[more][less]
Abstract: When a 22-year-old University of the Western Cape (UWC) female student was stabbed to death by her boyfriend (another student) in her room in the university residence on 25 August 2008, the entire campus was left reeling. Bringing the stark reality of gender-based violence (GBV) so close to home, the tragedy was a powerful reminder of the limits of more than a decade of legislative change, concerted activism, education, consciousness-raising and knowledge production aimed at challenging gender-based power inequalities. This article reflects on the relationships between violence, coercion and heterosexuality on a specific campus by drawing on data generated by a qualitative study at UWC that explored student constructions of heterosexual relationships in the light of national imperatives around HIV/AIDS and GBV. Involving 20 focus groups with male and female students over the course of 2008 and 2009, the study revealed that unequal and coercive practices are common in heterosexual relationships on this campus. The study underlined the necessity of understanding these relationships as produced through power inequalities inherent in normative gender roles, and also drew attention to ways in which gender power inequalities intersect in complex and sometimes contradictory ways with other forms of inequality on campus – in particular, class, age and geographical origin. While both men and women students appeared to experience pressure (linked to peer acceptance and material gain) to engage in (hetero)sexual relationships, it seems that first-year female students from poor, rural backgrounds are particularly vulnerable to the transactional and unequal relationships associated with coercive and sometimes even violent sexual practices. Alcohol and substance abuse also appear to be linked to unsafe and abusive sexual practices, and again it is young female students new to campus life who are most vulnerable. This article draws on the data from this larger study to explore experiences and understandings of the most vulnerable – young female students – in unpacking connections between (hetero)sexuality and violent and coercive sex in an educational institution. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/724 Files in this item: 1
ClowesGenderbased2009.pdf (122.2Kb) -
Ratele, Kopano; Shefer, Tamara; Clowes, Lindsay (Sage Publications, 2012)[more][less]
Abstract: The absence of biological fathers in South Africa has been constructed as a problem for children of both sexes but more so for boy-children. Arguably the dominant discourse in this respect has demonized non-nuclear, female-headed households. Fathers are constructed as either absent or ‘bad’. Thus it has become important to explore more closely how male care-givers have been experienced by groups of men in South Africa. This article examines discourses of fatherhood and fatherlessness by drawing on qualitative interviews with a group of 29 men who speak about their reported experiences and understandings of being fathered or growing up without biological fathers. Two major and intertwined subjugated discourses about adult men’s experiences of being fathered that counter- balance the prevailing discourses about meaning of fatherhood and fatherlessness became evident, namely, ‘being always there’ and ‘talking fatherhood’. The importance of the experience of fatherhood as ‘being there’, which relates to a quality of time and relationship between child and father rather than physical time together, is illustrated. It is not only biological fathers who can ‘be there’ for their sons but also social fathers, other significant male role models and father figures who step in at different times in participants’ lives when biological fathers are unavailable for whatever reason. Second, many positive experiences of fathers or father figures that resist a traditional role of authority and control and subscribe to more nurturant and non-violent forms of care, represented as ‘talking’ fathers, are underlined. If we are to better understand the impact of colonial and apartheid history and its legacy on family life in contemporary society, there is a need for more historically and contextually informed studies on the meaning of fatherhood and fatherlessness. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10566/716 Files in this item: 1
Ratele SouthAfricanFathers2012.pdf (582.9Kb)