Abstract
M.Ed.
Education is the key to success. Those who are educated have doors opened for them to better
and well paying occupations. Those unemployed and uneducated are often isolated by their
communities. There are still those people who believe that unemployment is the unemployed
person's fault.
This study is aimed at finding out the causes of unemployment and its effect on the lives of
the black women in Acornhoek. The extent to which these causes affect their family lives is
also investigated, as well as to find what these women recommend to facilitate change. Data
was collected through multiple methods. These unemployed, illiterate and poverty-stricken
women were interviewed. Observations through informal visits were made. A thorough
review of literature was made to determine what other researchers found on the same
phenomena. Multiple methods of collection were use to triangulate the data and to enhance
the validity of the findings.
These unemployed women need to be encouraged to transform. They are oppressed in the
private and public spheres of their lives, through patriarchal hierarchies of relations, and
through societal acceptance of their illiteracy and unemployment as natural. Through
empowerment they could be transformed from objects to subjects who have a say in the
political, social and economic aspects of their lives.
The findings of the study show that these women need education to equip them with the skills
to have a say in their domestic affairs. This information will help them to have control over
production and reproduction. Literacy will help these women to give birth to fewer children,
and help them to be knowledgeable about various diseases such as Anaemia, Kwashiorkor
and Aids. Their awareness of these diseases will help both the State and these women.
Literacy programs should be linked with income generating projects. Due to their situation of
being marginalized and poverty stricken, literacy programs for these women should be linked
with income generating projects. These projects will motivate the unemployed women to
participate in literacy programs. Politically, economically and socially they will be equipped
to take their rightful place on center-stage in the development of their communities and their
country.