Abstract
Abstract:
This article explores the specific ways women performed conflicting gender identities
at home and when engaged in waged work in South African mines, as compared to
other global cases. They fought back the belittling disreputable image of the urban
working-class women and yet refused to be identified merely as acceptable housewives
or mute witnesses of family disintegration. They negotiated claims for jobs, strove to
salvage marriages and objected to domestic abuse. A woman compensated for marriage
failure through initiating a new family structure consisting of her children, niece,
nephew and / or other street children, and grooming them to achieve social advancement.
Women took up the challenge of proving wrong the racist and sexist stereotypes
made against them. They expressed dexterity and handiness, and occasionally, exerted
themselves like men. Equally, they sought desexualisation of work relations, and
qualified this pursuit with their association with “workerist” integrity and a negotiable,
moralising approach to the sexual bully. They challenged the union movement on
questions of dignity, propriety and representation women...