'Resting’, AIDS-affliction and marital constraints : engendered livelihood issues in the aftermath of Lesotho mineworker retrenchments
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Date
Authors
Naidoo, Kammila
Matsie, Rachel
Ochse, Angela
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Routledge
Abstract
Since the late 1990s retrenched Basotho mineworkers have been returning in steady numbers
to the rural areas of Lesotho. While marital and household relations have been rekindled in
the process, there is currently much curiosity about how the large-scale presence of men in
rural areas is reconfiguring married women’s livelihood strategies and their striving for
financial autonomy. The Legal Capacity of Married Persons Act of 2006 has been celebrated
as a victory for married women, but customary practice and societal perceptions of the
legitimacy of men’s marital powers continue to restrict women’s activities and livelihood
efforts. This reflection on ethnographic research in Mafeteng, Lesotho, illustrates key
constraints, in particular gender ideologies and debilitating health conditions that aggravate
rural households’ economic crises. It is argued that more institutional interventions are
required in order to socialise the values and promote the cause of gender equality between
married partners and to tackle persisting familial and cultural impediments affecting
women’s lives.
Description
Keywords
Gender equality, Ethnography, Mineworker, Retrenchments, Mafeteng, Lesotho, Experiences of poverty, Marital powers
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Kammila Naidoo , Rachel Matsie & Angela Ochse (2011) ‘Resting’, AIDS-affliction and marital constraints: Engendered livelihood issues in the aftermath of
Lesotho mineworker retrenchments, Development Southern Africa, 28:5, 681-689, DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2011.623925.