Abstract
D.Phil.
The major part of what is known about women in leadership positions, and the challenges they are facing, is based on studies conducted in first-world countries. There clearly is a gap in the literature in terms of studies that focus on female leaders in Africa. Much has still to be said about the role that cultural practices and prejudices play in hampering the growth and progress of these women. This authentic study of a South African Zulu female manager provides a unique insight into the way she negotiated the challenges of climbing the corporate ladder in a male-dominated environment. Its postmodernist approach challenges the writer to use herself as a research subject while applying the principle of reflexivity in stepping back and analysing lived experiences from a researcher‟s perspective. In opening up her innermost feelings to the world, the researcher reveals who she really is, and how she, as a Zulu woman, wife, mother, and manager, negotiated her way between her own traditional culture and the Western corporate world. This creates real challenges to the researcher, as she has to keep sliding between being the subject and being the researcher at the same time. This narrative of "self" is recreated through interviewing people who had been part of the researcher‟s life during the period which was the focus of the study as well as the researcher recalling significant events. The research focuses on the challenges of being a minority leader in a South African workplace. The resistance to a black female as their superior by black males is highlighted, as is the manner in which these cultural prejudices result in discrimination against women by members of their own culture. The research also illuminates the impact of legislation aimed at transforming the local workplace and the leadership fraternity in a post-apartheid South Africa.