Suchergebnisse

This paper examines the notion of empowerment and what it entails in housing development. Through a critical analysis if the different phases in one particular housing project analyzed by the author, the paper highlights the areas of empowerment and emphasizes that it is a process, which in the case of Nthutukoville in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa began with securing land tenure. Access to resources and acquisition of skills are important. Both external and internal factors may be responsible for women's inability to take charge of their lives. External factors include political violence, unsupportive local authorities, and a hostile environment as well as lack of resources and skills. There is, however, often an internalized problem of the failure to challenge the prevailing gender ideology that reinforces women's subordination and male dominance in power. Although state policies may be favourable, women, through mobilizing resources, negotiating with authorities, and strategizing must be responsible for their own empowerment.

This special joint issue of the Journal of International Women's Studies (JIWS) and WAGADU focuses on women's activism and women's movements in different countries and cultures throughout Africa and the African Diaspora. The project represents a collaboration between two online, open-access journals that address gender and women's issues within a transnational and cross-cultural context. The essays, which are distributed between the two journals, use interdisciplinary feminist and activist approaches to reveal the different forms of personal and communal actions being undertaken by African women today in cultural, social, economic, and political arenas. In showing the diversity of African women's activism; the underlying issues around which activism develops; and the impact of women's activism on individuals, communities, and nations, this dual project has relevance for women and men throughout the world.