Abstract
M.A.
Just like in many other provinces of the new South Africa, the majority of the people in the
North West Province are located in the rural areas, the majority of them being women.
Women, especially those in the rural areas, are marginalised in the development process
regardless of the new focus on women in development literature. Most women are not
involved in the decision-making process, and the few that are involved only appear at the
implementation stage where there is need for manpower. Again, many women in the rural
areas are exposed to poverty and there is a close link between their marginalisation and
the poverty situation in which they fmd themselves. Development projects which are geared
towards poverty alleviation are planned by men for men and women are very seldom in
the planning stage. Women are therefore objects and not subjects of the development
process. Most policy-makers are not gender- sensitive and women often find themselves
left behind. Rural development projects also seem to be devoid of attention to local needs
and local preferences are therefore sometimes irrelevant. Many rural development projects
do not achieve their intended objectives and others even produce unwanted results and
perpetuate the existing socio-economic bottlenecks experienced in the rural areas. It is
believed that rural development projects will not reach their intended objectives if women
continue to be marginalised.
This study is prompted by the continued marginalisation of women in the development
process, despite the proliferation of literature on women and development. Three rural
settlements in the North West Province were selected to determine the extent to which
rural women participate in the development process: Miga, Loporung and Signalhill. In
each of these settlements, a rural development project was studied, which was then used
in a comparison of the three case studies. The most important method used to collect data
in the field was the interview method. This method has got its own inherent problems, for
example it is time-consuming. However, this method was preferred specifically because this research is about rural people and rural development projects. Apart from the fieldwork,
a literature study was done on the role of women in the development process, both
internationally and in Africa, especially in the context of rural projects. In view of the fact
that the majority of the people in the rural areas are not educated, this method was seen
to be viable. This method provides the researcher with ample opportunity to clarify issues
which are not understood by the interviewee. The researcher has the opportunity to give
a detailed explanation of the importance of the study and to ensure that they fully know
what is expected of them.
The findings of this research have indicated that the North West Province is not much
different from other provinces of South Africa. It was found that the majority of the people
are found in the rural areas and these people share many common characteristics. Among
these characteristics, poverty seems to be a more salient one and women and children are
the most hard-hit. Regardless of this appalling state of affairs, most policy-makers seem
to be obsessed with pandering to urban interests at the expense of the rural ones. It is
therefore
areas moving into the urban centres. In the three settlements that were studied, the
majority of the people moved into the urban areas of Mmabatho and Mafikeng to look for
employment opportunities. The majority of the migrants venture into informal activities.
Most of these people are women. Due to the poverty situation, many women are forced to
commercialise their domestic chores.
One of the most important findings of this research is that rural people are not
homogeneous and should therefore be treated according to their particular needs. It was
also found from this research that rural people sometimes do not accept their poverty
situation as given. Therefore, rural people should not be seen as passive objects which need
to be injected with Western values as the modernisation perspective asserted. Rural people
have proved to be ready and eager to improve their conditions of life. What needs to be
done, therefore, is to make facilities available and accessible for them. Generally, this research has shown that women in the rural areas are still marginalised and
aspects of social life such as poverty, patriarchy and tradition play a very significant role
to this effect. Lack of access to resources also contributes towards the marginalisation of
women. These are the major issues which need to be dealt with without any delay.