Editor’s Note: Another Tough Year Comes to an End

As the end of the year 2021 draws near, it is time to reflect and take stock as well as look into the future. This year like 2020 was equally tough as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to wreak havoc in the world. The mortality and morbidity rates remain high despite the development of a vaccine and many people being vaccinated. New variants of the virus emerged in 2021 leading to renewed restrictions on businesses and internal mobility as well as international travel to some parts of the world. No doubt, the pandemic has had a cascading disruptive effect on all facets of life and continues to impact on people’s mental health, and academic being a stressful career than others, scholars need to do what they can to take care of their mental health and wellbeing during this period. This can involve simple steps such as taking a few days off to relax or to connect with family and friends. I hope you have started planning and hopefully, we have learned some lessons from 2020 and 2021 and will be better prepared and equipped to adjust to whatever the ‘New Normal’ has in store for us in 2022.

Association between Socioeconomic Status and Psychological Distress among Rwandan Refugees in Zambia: a Gender Perspective

Urban refugees face several challenges which affect their emotional, social, and psychological well-being. This study utilised a quantitative cross-sectional design. The study assessed the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and psychological distress from a gender perspective among Rwandan refugees in Lusaka, Zambia. Two hundred and sixty-seven refugees between 18 and 65(M=33.99 years) participated in the study. The sample comprised men (47.9%) and women (52.1%) who were selected from Lusaka townships using purposive and convenience sampling techniques. SES was measured by assessing participants’ educational attainment, occupational status or employment, income, and financial support, whereas subjective psychological distress was evaluated using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). Framed within the feminist and the ecological systems perspectives, the study established an association between SES and psychological distress. The proportions of female participants in the lower education and unemployment categories and lower-income bracket were considerably higher than males in the same category. Similarly, the study revealed that the proportion of females (27%) with severe depression was higher than males (19%). However, the gender difference was negligible with other subscales such as the somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, and social dysfunction. Bivariate associations revealed well-established gender differences, where women with low education and financial support reported higher levels of psychological distress. Multivariate analysis revealed that employment predicted a lower level of psychological distress in both men and women. The findings highlight that refugees’ access to employment is an essential factor in determining psychological well-being. Well-defined intervention strategies by government and humanitarian bodies are critical and should aim to empower refugees towards easy access to formal and informal labour market opportunities.

Cultural Dynamics of Women Population as Inheritable Property in Anambra Traditional Society in South-Eastern Nigeria: Implications for Women’s Health

The study examined the practice of women as inheritable property among the Anambra Igbo. This was with a view to analysing how this practice has impacted on women’s population health and ascertain whether there have been changes in this practice. Feminism theory was employed to explain the inferior social status, subordination and exclusion of women population from partaking in the societal resources such as family property. This paper argued that women’s lack of access to inheritable property is the cause of women’s poverty and their poor health in Igboland. The study indicated that women are seen and treated as property and that women are inherited by their husbands’ kinsmen at the death of their husbands. The study also revealed neglect in the welfare of the widow and her children for her refusal to observe certain cultural but inhumane practice. The study also revealed that some communities practice widow cleansing in which the village deity priest must have sex with the widow after the burial of her husband so that she should be allowed to stay in that community. The study recommended that women as inheritable property have economic and health implications for all women in Igboland whether they are widowed, married or single. The study concluded that the concept of women as inheritable property impoverishes women and constitutes a barrier to women’s attainment of their full potentials in Igboland, and it has serious implications for their health.

A Compendium on the Application of Gender Equity Financing & Budgeting in Covid-19 Mitigation and Recovery Processes: Key Lessons for South Africa

The novel coronavirus has been declared a global pandemic that requires global emergency due to its impacts on the global economy and populations. This article delves into the extent to which public finance management responds to gendered implications that emanate from the COVID-19 contagion. The outbreak of diseases affects men and women differently, and in such pandemics, gender inequalities are more pronounced and efforts to reduce gender gaps are usually thwarted by financing and budgeting methods that are gender-neutral. From this standpoint, the article advances the notion that public expenditure initiatives taken to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 must be implemented from a gender lens and that the position of heterogeneous groups in society is considered to subdue further inequalities. The article also seeks to contribute to knowledge on gender-responsive budgeting by moving beyond procedural clarifications to highlight it as a critical element that can be adopted to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. Using discourse analysis, the study examines the extent to which gender-responsive public expenditure initiatives across the globe can be adopted in the South African context to respond to different needs of men and women amidst COVID-19. Evidence reveals that although the country set aside R500 billion to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic, there are still gaps to align the fiscal commitments to gender equity goals.

From Ethnic to National Cloth: The Diverse Nature of the Tshivenḓa Ṅwenda

In times past, the Tshivenḓa traditional cloth called Ṅwenda was associated with backwardness, stupidity, and had the Vhavenḓa women undermined for being ‘too rural’. Consequently, many dumped their traditional attire for other clothes to march with the times. Recently, Ṅwenda has been drawing attention from both the Vhavenḓa men and women and other ethnic groups because of the uniqueness and beauty of its embroidery. This article aimed to investigate the reason(s) Ṅwenda recently gained prominence and appreciation among the Vhavenḓa and other ethnic groups. The article adopted the qualitative approach and the exploratory design to collect data on the diverse nature and function of Ṅwenda. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sixteen purposively selected designers from six villages in Venḓa, including the Ṱhohoyanḓou Flea Market in the Limpopo Province and three townships in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Two tailors of Miṅwenda were selected from each of the aforementioned villages and townships. Undergirded by the Appreciative and Naturalistic Inquiries, the study also relied on the Inductive Thematic Analysis method for data analysis. It was found that Ṅwenda is used for special occasions such as weddings, parties, graduation ceremonies, and other social gatherings. Ṅwenda was also used to cover chairs, tables, and to decorate gowns, cushions, lampshades, bags, bedspreads or duvet covers, among other things. The article recommends the consideration of the role and significance of Tshivenḓa traditional attires in the ongoing discourses on the consolidation and traditionalisation of African identity as well as women’s empowerment initiatives in the postcolonial context.

A Critical Textual Analysis of Gender Disparities in Reneilwe Malatji’s Selected Short Stories

This article demonstrates the abstractness of the gender theory of motherism posited by Nigerian scholar Catherine Acholonu, showing its weakness as a theory by which to gauge rural women’s experiences in Africa. Using the short stories of South African writer Reneilwe Malatji as literary data, the article argues that gender works in conspiracy with culture, age, marital status and ethnicity to constrain rural women from exiting abusive marriages, speaking up against their husbands’ infidelities, ending dissatisfactory marriages, and fighting poverty. At the same time, Malatji’s short stories highlight the agency of rural women in resisting gender constraints to attain self-empowerment. The article proposes ultimately that a re-theorization of motherism must reflect the harsh realities in rural women’s lives and simultaneously show that alongside the debilitating experiences of patriarchal oppression women are also acting as agents of their own transformation.

Women in Trouble? A Critical Reflection on the Major Hindrances to Addressing Gender Based Violence in South Africa

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) is a global phenomenon affecting various countries including South Africa. Contextually, it is any violent act committed against the will of women and girls because of their gender and negatively affects their psychological and physical health and development. In South Africa, statistics are worrisome. It is in this context that this article explores GBV in South Africa from an Afrocentric point of view. It is argued that there are various legal frameworks that were instigated to do away with GBV, although there are still various societal and systemic hindrances to the progressive eradication of GBV in South Africa. The Afrocentric theoretical approach was adopted in this article as the issue at hand is a South African problem. By deploying a qualitative research approach as document analysis, the author provides a comprehensive analysis of the current level of GBV and presents policy recommendations to deal with GBV in South Africa.

The Socio-Cultural Church: A Determinant of Women’s Rights in Nigeria

Debates about women’s rights and the challenges of social exclusivity, gender inequality and human insecurity, are front-burner issues in discourses on the sociopolitical and socioeconomic landscapes in Nigeria. Despite constituting about fifty percent (50%) of the population of most modern societies, women are traditionally shortchanged at negotiation tables. This premise is fundamental to evaluating the threats posed to viable debates on the rights of women as ‘minority’ groups in society. Unfortunately, the church under the influence of the socio-culture, inadvertently establishes their pared positions through the misinterpretation of some doctrinal bases of Christianity, which allow rationality give way to ‘more superior’ extrapolations that hamper in-depth introspections on reasons for biblical positions and consequences of actions. Riggs’ fused-prismatic-diffracted model of society describes the processes capable of sustaining this dire situation as embedded in ‘non-administrative criteria’. Data for the study were collected using semi-structured questionnaires and unstructured interviews. Purposive and random sampling procedures were utilized in deriving the sample population from Christian-only populations. Pearson’s Bivariate Correlation, multiple regression analysis and theme-coding were employed to analyse the questionnaire and interview responses. The findings revealed that the socio-culture is a major determinant of the interpretations of biblical positions and teachings by churches, thereby upholding church agency as contributory to the rise in gender inequality, discrimination and domestic abuse cases in Nigeria. Strategies for abdicating the risks of domestic abuse and mitigating the impacts on women’s rights in Nigeria, were proffered.

Considering an Intersectional Lens in Agriculture and Climate Change: A Systematic Literature Review

BACKGROUND:Climate change has detrimental effects on agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods. Disasters such as droughts, wildfires, floods, changes in intensity and timing of temperatures often cause gendered differential impacts. Furthermore, gendered climate vulnerability increases its impacts over time, threatening rural livelihoods and global food security. Consequently, the most vulnerable sections of the society experience severe effects due to their lack of capacity and opportunities to respond to these clime shocks. PROBLEM:Available literature on climate change, agriculture and gender explore vulnerabilities in rural populations through binary gender lenses, whereby men and women are categorised distinctly in terms of needs, climate adaptation and agricultural practices. These studies utilise a narrow gender analysis. In so doing, indicators like age, household types, income and ethnicity are made analytically invisible. METHODS:This paper utilised a systematic review method. Literature from the 1991 to 2020 was utilised in a comprehensive literature review to show how the concept of gender in agriculture and climate change has evolved in the past three decades. A content thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the data. Results: Findings indicated that without considering social variances between and within genders, policy and programming lacks comprehensive insights in responding to differential climatic impacts. This leads to obscurity experienced in one-size-fits-all approaches taken to address the needs of all vulnerable members of society. RECOMMENDATIONS:This paper recommended that climate change programming and policy frameworks must be informed by comprehensive analysis aimed at developing suitable climate change adaptation strategies within and between genders.

Gender Equality in Human Resource Processes within the Department of Correctional Services, South Africa

The article discusses the human resource processes of the South African Department of Correctional Services (DCS) and assesses gender equality at all levels of management within the department. The article utilises the Mainstreaming Gender Equality (MGE) approach, known as gender mainstreaming to bring equal opportunities for both men and women in human resource development programmes within the DCS. A qualitative research approach was utilised to collect data. The article explores that there are challenges especially for women to advance their careers to senior management positions in the DCS. This is because of a lack of knowledge, compliance, and readiness to embrace gender transformation policies in the department. The article proposes policy recommendations to mainstream gender at institutional, departmental, and individual levels, and aims to contribute towards creating awareness to promote gender transformation in the public service (general context) and DCS (specific context).