Listening to the stories of women in the South African rural water services sector to understand how their traditional roles intersect with government gender mainstreaming initiatives

[摘要] Cultural dynamics bring an added dimension to development projects. The Departmentof Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) recognizes the need to engage with powerrelations at different levels between men and women, and that traditional beliefs andpractices are important here. However, the most recent strategy of the Department ofWater Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) fails to address the impact of cultural dynamics ongender mainstreaming. This study was conducted to increase the understanding of howthis might be dealt with.To yield personal information on how individuals are affected by traditional culture,narratology was used. Five women were engaged in three in-depth interviews ofapproximately two hours each. The purpose was to discuss their life stories and theirinvolvement in the water projects, and then to integrate the life stories with the projectsto highlight complexities around specific roles such as that of daughter, wife anddevelopment facilitator. The researcher therefore conducted the study from the point ofview of the women, rather than from the traditional perspective of the developmentpractitioner or government official.The empirical results were related to literature reviewed on topics such as complexity,feminism and sustainability. Thus, it was possible to highlight underlying complexitiesrelated to culture that might impact on gender mainstreaming in the following areas:(1) Women's time and labour(2) Women's power within African societies(3) The Butterfly effect in women's lives(4) Fundamental human desires in women's lives(5) Utilising social capital(6) The approach of funding and donor organizations(7) Society as a complex system(8) The effects of migration on women's lives Some aspects highlighted by the study are the following. Development and fundingorganizations often use a one-size-fits-all individualistic approach whereas the societiesthey work in have a more collective mindset. Furthermore, women's time and labour areexploited by the developmental organizations as rural women offer their servicesvoluntarily. And in African society mothering boys is a source of power for women,which influences resource allocation.In terms of a recommended approach to addressing the impact of traditional culture ongender mainstreaming, it was found that a practitioner does not have to tackletraditional culture head-on by for instance proposing defiance against certain norms.Rather, the practitioner should obtain information about the wider system (the society,the prevailing culture and the project context) to provide insight into how women areaffected and how the system might be manipulated to eventually bring about the desiredchanges for the specific context. The processes of change in culture and genderrelations must be viewed as on-going and exact time-frames are usually not appropriatein measuring such.As the study emphasized the importance of both men and women working together onprojects, a limitation of the current study is that it focused only on the stories of women.A follow-up study should include the views and stories of how gender mainstreamingand traditional culture impact on men.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University