Tài liệu Women, Development and Transport in Rural Eastern Cape, South Africa ppt

1Gender differences in travel patterns 5Time of travel 6Gender and transport in rural areas 6 Consultation phase 7Site 7 Aims of the study 7Data collection instruments 8Questionnaires 8

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First published 2006 ISBN 0-7969-2168-7

© 2006 Human Sciences Research Council Copyedited by Amanda Matthee

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What do we know about gender and transport? 1Gender differences in travel patterns 5

Time of travel 6Gender and transport in rural areas 6

Consultation phase 7Site 7

Aims of the study 7Data collection instruments 8Questionnaires 8

Focus groups 8Time-use diaries 8Participants 10Approach to recruitment of fieldworkers 11Analysis 11

Questionnaires 11Focus groups 11Time-use diaries 12

Findings from the questionnaire 13Primary travel-related activities of women 13Ownership and the gendered nature of access to means of transport 16Public transport and women’s travel activities 18

Transport activities and girl children 20Findings from the time-use diary 22Context information 22

How women spent their time 23Travel-related activities 27Housework-related activities 28

Non-motorised transport interventions 32Upgrading of footpaths, construction of low-level footbridges 33Times of operation: buses and taxis 33

Income-generating activities 33Women’s health, maternal mortality and transport 33Gender, education and mobility 34

Policy versus commitment: skills and resources 35Mainstreaming gender into rural transport strategies: implementation questions 35

A future research agenda 35Concluding comments 36

Figure 2.1 Low income-generating activities of women for payment in cash

or kind 11Figure 3.1 Amount of time women spent travelling to collect firewood/animal dung

and number of trips per day 14Figure 3.2 Amount of time women spent travelling to collect water and number of

trips per day 15Figure 3.3 Use of means of transport by gender (percentages) 17Figure 3.4 Percentage of girls and boys who collect firewood/animal dung and

water, and work in the fields 20Figure 3.5 Percentage of girls and boys aged 6–10 years and 11–17 years who would

be encouraged to use bicycles 21Figure 3.6 Proportion of the total time per week women in Flagstaff spent on

activities (in hours and minutes) 25Figure 3.7 Proportion of the total time per week women in Port St Johns spent on

activities (in hours and minutes) 25

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

• The South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL), in particular, the CEO,

Mr Nazir Alli, without whose support the study would not have been conducted,and the Development Planner, Ms Elna Fourie, who went the extra mile for thestudy

• The Mayor, councillors and community members of the Qaukeni (Flagstaff) and Port

St Johns Local Municipalities

• Nomthetho Zote, the Project Manager

• Gavin Jood, the Fieldwork Coordinator

• Professor Vasu Reddy, for editorial assistance

• All the women who participated in the study

SANRAL South African National Roads Agency Limited

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

a heavier transport burden They recognise that the Eastern Cape is one of the poorestprovinces in the country, as well as one in which the least research has been done Areport on mass poverty leading to child deaths in the Qaukeni Municipality where part

of the research was done states: ‘It is a forgotten part of South Africa […] Because of lack

of roads there are villages that cannot be reached by 4X4s or mobile welfare and Home

Affairs units, and it is these areas that starvation hits hardest’ (Sunday Times 22.09.2002).

The authors of this research could not access any study relating to women and travel/

transport which has been conducted in the Eastern Cape Before embarking on the study

we had anecdotal evidence of the burden of transport on rural women in the EasternCape but the consequences of this were not documented

This publication is the result of a commissioned study conducted by The Gender andDevelopment Unit of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) for the South AfricanNational Roads Agency Limited (hereafter SANRAL) to explore the gendered nature ofwomen’s travel in rural Eastern Cape

The research was not viewed simply as an abstract process of knowledge-seeking but as

a means through which to acquire an understanding of women’s travel experiences andneeds in rural Eastern Cape, South Africa

The primary aims of the study were to:

• Explore the gender-based dimensions of rural women’s travel activities, experiencesand needs in order to provide policy and planning guidelines to governmentdepartments and other stakeholders who are involved in community povertyalleviation and development;

• Address the impact of the gendered nature of transport and travelling on the social,economic and political roles of women in the area;

• Assess the impact of roads on gendered multiple roles in this rural area

What do we know about gender and transport?

In the past decade and a half a range of decision-makers and academics in both thedeveloping and developed world have begun to recognise the differences in travel- andtransport-related activities of men and women There is an emerging body of literaturewhich addresses the relationship between gender, development and transport (see e.g

Turner, 1998; Mahapa, 2003; Fernando & Porter, 2002) The World Bank and otherdevelopmental institutions are increasingly producing manuals and other material ongender and transport (Peters, 2002) The World Bank has also set up a Gender andTransport Thematic Group (GTTG) Yet, whilst more researchers and developmentprofessionals today attempt to understand gender differences in access and mobility thanever before, relatively few of the recent insights have found their way back into actualtransport planning policy and interventions In South Africa, although there is an

Transport is a key factor for economic and social development in that the movement ofgoods and people over any distance by any possible means facilitates the use of facilitiesand services, thereby promoting trade and improving standards of living through access

to health, education, social services, markets, etc (Rama, 1999) The availability oftransport and transport infrastructure has an impact on the wealth or poverty of acommunity and its people Establishing and understanding gender differences in transportneeds, access and planning is important, particularly in that men and women havedifferent economic and socio-cultural roles and responsibilities, and consequently havedifferent travel and transport needs (Bamberger, 2000)

Grieco, Pickup and Whipp (1989) in a volume examining gender, transport andemployment note that women’s employment, as opposed to men’s employment, isundertaken in the context of and in combination with a complex set of domestic andhousehold responsibilities Women are therefore more likely to make multipurposejourneys in scattered locations (Turner, Apt, Grieco & Kwakye, 1998) and these tripsrelate to employment, household/family and personal needs and demands Women, incomparison to men, are most likely to spend considerably more time on travel and task-related activities and are likely to link (referred to as trip chaining) different tasks andtrips (Sarmiento, 1996)

Turner, Apt, Grieco and Kwakye (1998) suggest that transport planning focuses on thesingle-purpose and predominantly male journey to work, thereby not adequatelycapturing the travel needs and patterns of women in both urban and rural contexts.For example, women in comparison to men are more likely to utilise public transportsystems (Grieco, Pickup & Whipp, 1989; Turner, Apt, Grieco & Kwakye, 1998), yet publictransport systems or urban transport policies seldom cater to women with dependentchildren Transport problems and how these are addressed can therefore place additionalburdens on women and children This absence of or lack of awareness of the genderedpatterns of travel and of time and task use in planning and policy development cancontribute towards reducing women’s economic and social productivity, their access topublic services, and their political and community participation

Grieco, Pickup and Whipp (1989: 2–3) note the influences on women’s travel patterns,travel time and tasks undertaken, and summarise the key arguments:

• Women’s role in travel is a cultural phenomenon, that is, women’s travel patternsand levels of mobility are rooted in the values and assumptions of ‘family’ and

‘community’

• Travel is a gendered activity, with men and women having different travel needs,demands and patterns

• Women have specific needs based on their own travel activities

• Owing to the strength of the prevailing stereotypes, which construct women’scoordinating behaviour as instinctual nurturing, positive creative management oftasks, travel and time by women can go unrecognised

to appropriate modes of transport, time spent on transport activities and overall access

of the water collection, 57% of the laundry activities, 63% of the fuel wood collectionand 48% of trips to the market Obviously, as many studies point out, the quality of thefootpaths, their destination and the weather patterns have an impact on all activities

Given that transport-related responsibilities are largely borne by women, rural menconsider these transport problems to be of very little significance (Rama, 1999)

The unacceptably higher levels of household tasks undertaken by women, as opposed

to men, contribute to what has been termed ‘time poverty’, i.e time spent walking longdistances to collect water and wood instead of time spent on community participation,accessing healthcare, etc This is a major contributing variable to the feminisation ofpoverty Grieco (undated: 2) explains this notion that women’s multiple social roles (asworker, as domestic provider, as child carer and carer of dependants, as food producer)intensify the time demands on women to the extent that women can often be deemed

‘time poor’ Women are therefore not able to find time to attend to their health orpersonal problems, to participate in economic (labour or market) activities or to enrol ineducation institutions (Grieco, undated, and Fernando and Porter, 2002) The difficultsituations of women and girls in female-headed households are more likely to becompounded by problems of time poverty

Another aspect contributing to women’s time poverty is the mode of travel utilised Inmany developing countries, rural people depend largely on non-motorised transport andthe ownership of motorised private or public modes of travel are limited in rural areas(Maganya, 1997) The main mode of travel in rural areas is walking, with only a fewhouseholds owning bicycles and animals, as these modes are more affordable andcheaper for the household (Mashiri, 1997) Fernando and Porter (2002) note that culture

is a strong determinant of women’s ability to use transport technologies, and this mayvary by location The authors explain this using Uganda as an example In eastern andnorthern Uganda, women ride bicycles while in the central region bicycles are theproperty and domain of men and boys In Burkina Faso, the authors note, among certainethnic groups, women are forbidden to ride bicycles, and in some regions this extends tothe riding of donkeys and horses, because riding horses, donkeys and bicycles will ‘incurthe risk of young girls losing their virginity’ (Ouedraogo, cited in Fernando and Porter,2002) Cultural and religious practices, including issues of caste, constrain women’smobility and accessibility within and outside the household, thereby contributing to thembeing time poor, and isolated

In South Africa, there are very few studies that have identified the specific transport needs

of both rural and urban women Another point worth noting is that the publications which

Government has also focused on areas such as gender and health often within thecontext of the HIV pandemic and issues relating to gender and education Many authorshave pointed out that the issue has not influenced transport policy and planning

(Mahapa, 2003, Bamberger & Lebo, 1998) However, it is very encouraging that theNational Department of Transport (NDOT) draft document on Rural Transport Strategyfor South Africa states the following with regard to women and transport in rural areas:'There also needs to be greater awareness of neglected rural access needs – especiallythose of women, the poor and the disadvantaged’ (2005a: 12) It also recognises that theneeds of rural women have in the past not been taken into account when it succinctlystates that: ‘The delivery of rural transport infrastructure and services in South Africa hasbeen characterised by a bias towards roads, motorised transport and male-defined travelneeds and the corresponding relative neglect of “off-road infrastructure” such as pathsand tracks and non-motorised transport modes (bicycles, donkeys, etc.) and the accessneeds of women and people with disabilities’ (2005a: 12) The document has a clearcommitment to the development of infrastructure for non-motorised transport and asection on capacity building that commits to ‘community participation and mainstreaming

of women and youth in all aspects of rural transport provision’ (2005a: 19)

As indicated later in this document it would be important for all stakeholders to workclosely together to implement the draft document’s commitment to gender mainstreaming

in rural areas

Mashiri and Mahapa may quite comfortably be credited with groundbreaking research inthe area of gender and rural transport issues in South Africa (Mahapa, 2000; Mahapa &Mashiri, 2001), as well as contributing to new research (Pillay, 2003) and furtheringtheoretical and policy debates Mashiri and Mahapa note that in the analysis of transportsystems studies of rural households, transport characteristics have been excluded, eventhough the household is the locus of transport demands (Mahapa & Mashiri, 2001).Mahapa (2003) states that ‘the question of gender in the objectives of the NDOT seems

to be far removed’ (2003: 45)

In evaluating the impact of the Tshitwe Road Upgrading Project on the lives of the menand women of Tshitwe, Mahapa and Mashiri (2001) used an activity-based approach.The authors noted that while the project provided financial relief, albeit temporary, forthe men and women of Tshitwe who were employed on the project, disparities existed

in terms of wages paid to men and women, as well as the tasks allocated to men andwomen Men received higher wages, and were employed in more technical- andtechnology-related tasks, whereas women were employed in menial, non-technicalactivities such as carrying stones In terms of the impact on the households andcommunity, men and women employed on this project spent their earnings in differentways In most cases the men spent ‘much’ money on consumer goods from the urbanareas with no redistribution of these resources back to the rural sector, compared towomen who used their money to purchase local goods and services With regard to theimpact of the road upgrade on the travel demands of the women and children, the

Mahapa and Mashiri (2001: 24) confirm the above issues in the following points: ‘TheTshitwe road-upgrading project reflects a preoccupation of policy makers with higher-technology fixes and efficiency rather than the thorough examination of the needs of thebeneficiary communities, which could have resulted in a different, less expensive, butmore sustainable gender-sensitive solution to the problem It is thus critically important

to realise that ignoring, underplaying or misunderstanding gender differences in theeconomy of the household, and by extension, of the village, could lead to expensiveand irrelevant development projects.’

An approach to suggested interventions being adopted in current studies and researchinto rural transport needs is the focus on non-motorised modes of travel undertaken byits members in the carrying out of various household and personal tasks and activities

Within this approach focus is shifted to improving the safety and quality of infrastructuresuch as footpaths, tracks, river crossings and footbridges In a case study of rural traveland transport planning in Malawi, for example, the rural household was the unit ofanalysis of trip generations in the rural village (Ali-Nejadfard, 1997) Footpaths andfootbridges were the predominant transport infrastructure used by the rural household

In meeting the actual travel needs and access demands of the rural village the most effective travel interventions implemented were the use of intermediate modes of travel

cost-These included wheelbarrows, bicycles and animal-drawn or bicycle-drawn carts, and

in terms of infrastructure appropriate timber bridges were constructed and footpathsimproved Within this approach the mainstreaming of gender issues in the transportneeds and interventions of the rural community can be realised

The following three sections focus on issues which are crucial to gender and travel inrural areas (Some points have been referred to in the first few pages.)

Gender differences in travel patterns

In recent years internationally, but not in South Africa, there has been an increasing trendtowards gender disaggregation of travel statistics, but knowledge of gendered travelbehaviour remains minimal In international research there are also some problems intracing certain gendered trends For example, it is only recently that shopping trips havebeen disaggregated from personal trips and ‘other trips’ (Hamilton & Jenkins, 2000)

Researchers point out that the conflation of these categories is just one example of howgender-neutral assumptions or research and interventions not using a gender lens candistort perceptions of women’s travel Hamilton, Jenkins and Gregory (1991) also maintainthat many research studies/tabulations excluded journeys under one mile – most of whichare made by women and children Statistics indicate that men travel more miles thanwomen (Hamilton, Jenkins & Gregory, 1991) but what is not recorded is the number ofjourneys which many women make on foot Travel lengths vary markedly by journeypurposes and here gender is the crucial variable For example, trips to collect firewood inrural areas and trips to take care of older relatives tend to be more frequent than journeys

to the place of paid employment

Gender and transport in rural areas

One of the reasons for transport being important for the development of women in ruralareas is that it has an impact on women accessing health services, educational facilitiesand employment, and participating in key decision-making forums Transport canimprove the lives of women by reducing the amount of time they spend on householdactivities In rural areas, women are largely responsible for domestic activities Researchfindings in Africa (mainly from Sub-Saharan Africa), clearly indicate that men andwomen’s transport-related tasks in rural areas are gendered Females spend more timeand energy on transport, have less access to and power over resources, and also havefewer opportunities than males to make use of transport technologies which would easethe transport burden (Fernando & Porter, 2002; Mahapa, 2003) Gender issues haveunfortunately also not been considered in policy and practice in rural transport systems

in the majority of developing countries – the latter situation entrenches social and spatialexclusion in rural transport (Mahapa, 2003) Our reading of the literature clearly indicatesthat gender has been more of an add-on factor and has not been mainstreamed intransport policy and planning in relation to rural South Africa Mahapa (2003: 33)comments: ‘The main theme emerging from the literature review is that gender issuesare still peripheral in much of rural transport and planning’ Research within the growingbody of ‘gender and transport’ literature indicates that roads and motorised transport veryoften only have a limited impact on the lives of the rural poor However, ‘both institutionsand research in the transport and rural development courses of universities remain

strongly biased towards the provision of motorised road transport as the means ofmeeting most movements and needs The implication is that the transport needs of ruralcommunities are still obscured’ (Mahapa, 2003: 34)

Women’s transport needs are crucial to transport planning, but this can only be done ifplanners are aware of the difference in transport needs of men and women (Bamberger &Davis, 2001) Rural household travel and transport mostly entail the transportation ofsmall goods over short distances and travel within and between villages, local marketsand surrounding areas, mostly on foot (Mashiri, 1996) As Mahapa (2003) states, untilvery recently government has placed an emphasis on the provision of roads and not onservice provision Service provision obviously has a major influence on women’s access

to services and other opportunities It is well documented that in the developing world,Africa in particular, women bear the responsibility for head loading goods, crops, waterand fuel whilst simultaneously carrying children on their backs (Fernando & Porter, 2002)

If planners and governments are serious about alleviating poverty it is important to talk to

the women themselves about what their needs are and how they could be met The latter

was one of the aims which the current research pursued

The study was conducted in the village of Nkozo, in the Qaukeni (Flagstaff) LocalMunicipality, as well as in Gqubeni, Port St Johns Qaukeni and Port St Johns districtsfall under the OR Tambo District Municipality in the Eastern Cape According to figuresfrom the 2001 Census, the total population of the OR Tambo District Municipality wasestimated to be just over 1.6 million The population of Qaukeni was just over 250 000with 51 000 households; Port St Johns was just over 146 000 with an estimated 29 000households Qaukeni and Port St Johns had a population growth of 0.8% and 0.1%

respectively between 1996 and 2001 (DBSA, 2005: 158) About 93.3% of the totalpopulation of the OR Tambo District Municipality live in areas categorised as rural TheEastern Cape was specifically chosen for this study as it has been identified as one ofthe poorest provinces in the country, with the least research undertaken with regard toissues of transport, mobility and accessibility According to the National Household TravelSurvey (NDOT, 2005b), more than 60% of households in the Eastern Cape have a

monthly income of less than R500 It was also reported that medical, welfare and policeservices are less accessible in the Eastern Cape than in any other province

According to the Development Bank of South Africa’s 2005 Development Report (DBSA,2005), the 2001 statistics showed that 86% of households in Qaukeni had no access toelectricity, 78% had no access to water, 97% had no access to refuse removal and 67%

had no access to housing The situation was equally grim in Port St Johns where 82% ofhouseholds had no access to electricity, 81% had no access to water, 75% had no access

to sanitation, 96% had no access to refuse removal and 82% had no access to housing

The Development Report also indicated that the unemployment rate in 2001 for Qaukeniwas 66% and Port St Johns was 70%

Aims of the study

• To explore the gender-based dimensions of rural women’s travel activities,experiences and needs in order to provide gendered, informed interventions relating

to policy and planning which could assist the client (SANRAL) in its communitydevelopment and poverty alleviation programmes

• To explore the impact of the gendered nature of transport and travel on the social,health, economic and political status of women and girls in the area

Data collection instruments

Data was collected by means of 237 questionnaires, three focus groups and 17 time-usediaries (eight in Flagstaff and nine in Port St Johns) Additional information on participantsand data collected for the time-use diaries are presented in the section on findings fromthe time-use diaries

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are a popular means of obtaining data from a large number ofrespondents (as in this study) Structured questionnaires were used in order to ensurethat a wide number of areas were covered for each respondent This method ensuresconsistency when applying the same analysis across the data Great care was taken in thedevelopment of the instrument to ensure that interviewer bias was minimised and thatquestions were clear and easy to answer in order to provide consistent and reliable data

The questionnaire comprised a total of 147 questions Pre-coded categories were createdfor most of the questions Data was collected in isiXhosa by first-language Xhosa speakers

to ensure that there were no language barriers and that the interviewer and respondentcould communicate freely The structured questionnaire consisted of five sections:

• Household information;

• Household member grid;

• Participant details;

• Household activities involving travelling that the participant engaged in; and

• Travel activities of children in the household

The questionnaires were administered to women aged 18 years and older who wereresidents of the Nkozo and Gqubeni villages Respondents to the questionnaires wereselected randomly from the villages Visits to the villages were undertaken prior to thecommencement of fieldwork and administration of the time-use diary In this preparatoryphase, women were asked to volunteer to participate in the study

Focus groups

Focus group discussions are in-depth, qualitative interviews with a small number ofcarefully selected people Qualitative data derived from focus groups is extremelyvaluable when vivid and rich descriptions are needed The discussions provided a wealth

of information on women’s travel behaviour, and their thoughts and feelings about related aspects of their lives Three focus groups were conducted in isiXhosa and weretape-recorded and transcribed

travel-Time-use diaries

The primary aim of a time-use diary is to enable respondents to report all activitiesundertaken over a prescribed period of time including the beginning and ending timefor each activity, a description of the activity and the contextual information requiredfor analysis The time-use diary was adapted from the instrument used by StatisticsSouth Africa for the Time Use Survey 2000 (Statistics South Africa, 2001) It comprisedseven sections:

• Section one: participant details;

• Section two to six: 24-hour diaries (divided into half-hour slots);

• Section seven: quality and availability of transport infrastructure in the rural village

on these daily activities There is a range of reasons as to the usefulness of time-usediaries Tu (2001), for example, suggests that a time-use diary is more accurate thanstylised measures in estimating time use for the following reasons: Firstly, it provides ameans for clear documentation of activities within a day Secondly, the short referenceperiod in a time-use diary provides cues for respondents to recall daily activities Thirdly,

it is possible to record time spent on different activities simultaneously Bonke (2005)further adds to the advantages by pointing out that they provide information on howpeople structure their everyday life, the amount of time people spend on activities, andthe type of activities they engage in (paid and unpaid), including leisure, educational andrecreational activities

In our reading of the literature we observed that time-use diaries are not a popular datagathering tool in research related to mobility in rural areas of developing nations

Although the research team had decided on this method we have to report that thechallenges it posed almost led us to abandoning it as a method First of all most of thewomen were not very literate and they were overwhelmed and burdened by the idea

of having to fill out a ‘form’ which captured what they had done for the day Theresearchers thus chose to accompany the women for one of the diary days on their dailywalk This entailed spending one full day (from 04:00 in the morning to 15:00 in theafternoon) observing and recording the activities undertaken by each woman on acontinuous basis The distance walked also had to be measured A measuring wheel,used by road construction workers, was used in the calculation

Country Survey Mode of data collection

Australia Time-use survey, 1997 Self-reporting: two diary daysBenin Time-use survey, 1998 Face-to-face recall interview: one diary dayIndia Time-use survey, 1998 Face-to-face recall interview: three diary daysMongolia Time-use survey, 2000 Self-reporting and face-to-face recall:

two to three diary daysMorocco National survey on

women’s time, 1997/1998 Face-to-face recall interview: one diary daySouth Africa Time-use survey, 2000 Face-to-face recall interview: one diary day

The diary data for the remaining days was recorded using the activity recall method –each respondent was visited at home and asked to recall her activities in the preceding

24 hours Respondents were asked to report on each activity undertaken successivelyfrom waking – including the time that each activity began and ended throughout the

24 hours The interval time in which the activities were reported was fixed The 24 hours

in a day were subdivided into intervals of 30 minutes The main or primary activity wasreported for each time of the day Time was recorded in minutes

The comprehensive data obtained provided the research team with a clear picture of theactivities that the women engage in daily

Participants

Interviews based on the questionnaire were conducted with a total of 231 women andsix men Although the sample targeted women, it was decided to interview men if thefieldworkers came across a household consisting of only male members Given that thefocus of the study was on women and that the questionnaires completed by men had asignificant amount of missing data (men did not do any of the activities), the data wasnot analysed for men

The demographic profile illustrates respondents were likely to be isiXhosa-speaking Atotal of 97% of the respondents were African females A total of 78% of the respondentswere born between 1931 and 1970 These respondents were living in either the Redhill(28%) or Mpumaze (20%) village Most respondents (97%) had always stayed in thevillages surveyed With regard to marital status, 51% of women were married according

to tradition and custom, and 30% were widowed A total of 42% of women reportedhaving no schooling and 43% had attended primary school (up to Grade 7/Standard 5).Only 1% (n=2) were high school graduates and 1% (n=2) had post-school qualifications

A total of 84% of respondents indicated that they were housewives or homemakers asthey had given up looking for paid employment However, per definition a housewife

or homemaker is a person who stays at home of their own free will and not because ofunemployment or any other circumstantial reason

Most of these women are in fact unemployed and do not fall in the ‘housewife’ category

It can be argued that this category be redefined as ‘unemployed persons who are lookingafter the household’ Although most of the women (84%, n=185) were unemployed, inthe sense that they were homemakers/housewives, 70 women were involved in income-generating activities for payment in cash or kind (see Figure 2.1)

Figure 2.1: Low income-generating activities of women for payment in cash or kind

Figure 2.1 shows that most women involved in income-generating activities looked afterchildren (n=27), while a few women did thatching (n=9) and domestic work (n=9)

Household income was mostly derived from state grants (55%), and to a lesser degreefrom wages (16%) and private pension funds (9%) State grants were reported to be anyamount up to R750.00 The total monthly income in the household is less than R750.00(86%), which is consistent with the amount from state grants This implies that mosthouseholds are solely dependent on these grants and obtain little or no additional incomewhich was also apparent from Figure 2.1 While the average income per household wasR618.76, 22% of households had a monthly income of less than R250.00 This is

particularly significant when looking at transport costs and the cost of accessinghealthcare facilities and clinics (See section on accessing health facilities.)

Approach to recruitment of fieldworkers

A participatory empowerment approach was adopted for the data collection and capturing processes of the study Owing to the high unemployment rate it was decidedthat people living in the area would be recruited to assist with the project This entailedconsultation with communities The fieldwork manager and fieldworkers were recruitedfrom the Qaukeni/Bizana/Port St Johns/Umtata areas Interestingly, most of the

data-fieldworkers were unemployed but were university graduates who could not findpermanent work The fieldwork manager also assisted with the cleaning and capturing

of data The fieldworkers were provided with an intensive one-day training session

Given the fact that many of them were familiar with the basics of research the trainingwas very successful Regular meetings and feedback sessions were held with fieldworkersthroughout the fieldwork period to ensure that everybody was on track and to discussany difficulties or obstacles that emerged

Analysis

Questionnaires

The data from the questionnaire was captured in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) Frequencies were run on all 147 questionsfrom the questionnaire and were used to generate graphs, tables and cross-tabulations

Focus groups

A thematic content analysis was used to analyse the focus group data

30 25 20 15 10 5 0

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Looking after children Domestic work Thatching Sell fruit and vegetables Make crafts Sell crafts

Sell clothes or shoes Hairdressing Other work Projects such as baking

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by a descriptive overview of the activities in which women engage We also analysed,where applicable and relevant, both total time and mean time spent on a particularactivity The mean time is calculated by dividing the total time spent on an activity bythe number of people who reported participating in the same activity Analysis was doneusing MS Excel.

Findings from the questionnaire

Findings from the study are divided into four broad themes: primary travel-relatedactivities of women; ownership and the gendered nature of access to means of transport;

public transport and women’s travel activities; transport activities and girl children Thefirst section reports results on women’s travel behaviour and their primary travel-relatedactivities The next section discusses patriarchy and how gender relates to access toalternative transport means

Taking women’s primary travel-related activities into account, the next section looks atwomen’s mobility and the way in which their travel resources affect their everyday lives

The final section briefly discusses children’s work and travel-related activities

Primary travel-related activities of women

This section discusses the primary travel-related activities that women engage in on adaily basis – the collection of firewood and water, and work in the fields In this section

it is argued that the time-consuming travel related to these primary activities offers animportant opportunity for intervention

An overwhelming majority of women (99%) walked and carried firewood on their heads

Apart from the time involved in providing sufficient firewood for the household, thehealth implications associated with head loading are a serious cause for concern Womenwere also the primary suppliers of water for households (55%) In some cases womenwere assisted by girl children and, occasionally, by boy children However, women areresponsible for the provision of water with or without help from other householdmembers Again, the primary mode of transport is head loading with women carrying anaverage of 66 litres of water per trip An average of three trips per day was made tocollect water, robbing women of one and a half to more than three hours of their timeper day

Women spend between three and a half hours and nine and a half hours travelling tocollect firewood/animal dung and water, and on trips to the fields This does not take intoaccount the actual time that women spend collecting firewood/animal dung and water,and working in the fields In addition to these activities, women are responsible for otherdomestic chores such as cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping and so on Based on ourfindings, it is apparent that these women are ‘time poor’; they do not have any time toimprove their own physical and emotional wellbeing, develop their own interests, accesseducation (42% of women respondents had not attended school at all and 43% had onlycompleted Grade 7/Standard 5), or participate in community and political activities

As women are responsible for many time-consuming domestic activities, they areexcluded from social and political activities An intervention is required to assist women

to perform their tasks more easily and swiftly in order to alleviate the burden they carry

Women are primarily responsible for three main travel-related tasks: the collection offirewood, the collection of water, and travelling to the field to harvest crops Thefollowing sections provide a more detailed picture of women’s responsibilities and theamount of time required to fulfil these tasks

Firewood is used as a source of energy for cooking and heating Women are dependent

on firewood and paraffin as the major source of energy/fuel for cooking (72%) andheating (71%) The task of collecting firewood is not limited to women but includes girlchildren as well The bulk of the responsibility fell on women (60%) to collect firewood/animal dung for the household When they were sick, 61% of girls collected the

firewood/animal dung In other instances the women were assisted by girl children and

in exceptional instances by boy children The collection of firewood (amongst otheractivities) means that girls spend a lot of time on household chores which often deniesthem the opportunity to attend school regularly An overwhelming majority of women(99%) walked and carried firewood on their heads

Even in households which owned animals (54%), women did not have any access toanimals This could be due to cultural and social restrictions (IFAD, 2001; Starkey et al.,2002) Mahapa (2003) reports there are restrictions on women’s access to animal-drawntransport due to patriarchy and the entrenched unequal power relations in society

Women had to walk and carry the firewood/animal dung on their heads as it wasexpected of them In addition to the time-consuming nature of travelling (walking) tothe source of firewood, the data indicates that women spend one to three hours per daycollecting the firewood This entails, in some cases, a number of walking trips whichcould be as long as three hours per trip – totalling up to four to six hours to travel andcollect firewood (see Figure 3.1)

Figure 3.1: Amount of time women spent travelling to collect firewood/animal dung and number

of trips per day

Figure 3.1 shows that the majority of women made one trip per day to collect firewood/animal dung and spent 90 to 180 minutes (one and a half to three hours) per daytravelling to do so This excludes the time spent collecting the fuel Data from the time-use diaries indicates that for four days the women in Flagstaff spent 705 minutes (11 hours

45 minutes) and women in Port St Johns spent 330 minutes (5 hours 30 minutes)collecting firewood

This, however, presents a new set of problems as women’s safety is often jeopardisedwhen using these water sources for bathing (see section on violence against women).

As with collecting firewood, 55% of women indicated that it was primarily their duty tocollect water In other cases they were assisted by girl children and in exceptional cases

by boy children When women are sick, pregnant or unable to collect water, 60% of girlsdid this task Seven of the women said that if they did not collect water, no one else inthe family went; in other words the household had no water This indicates that thesewomen have no assistance whatsoever from other family members in collecting water forthe household as collecting water is regarded as women’s work only As one of thewomen in the focus group commented:

Boys will collect wood and water in an emergency If there are no girls or the mother and the grandmother are dead or sick, he will find a girl that will collect for him maybe a friend.

It is again evident that women walk and head load – 85% of women walked and carriedwater on their heads This is consistent with findings in the literature regarding ruralwomen’s transport (IFAD, 2001; Starkey et al., 2002; Mahapa, 2003)

Figure 3.2 demonstrates how much time women spent travelling to collect water and thenumber of trips made per day

Figure 3.2: Amount of time women spent travelling to collect water and number of trips per day

Eight trips Six trips Five trips Four trips Three trips Two trips One trip

2 10

It was calculated that the average amount of water women carried per trip was 66 litres.

It is apparent from Figure 3.2 that most women made three trips per day and spent 30 to

90 minutes (half an hour to one and a half hours) travelling to and from the well/springand flowing water/stream/river (excluding the actual time spent collecting water) Datafrom the time-use diaries showed that for the four diary days, the women in Flagstaffspent 435 minutes (7 hours 15 minutes) and the women in Port St Johns spent 840 minutes(14 hours) collecting water

Travelling to fields

In addition to household and family-related tasks, women also worked in the fields.This has an additional impact on their time and the distances they travel exacerbatetheir transport and household burdens A total of 83% of the women owned a field and84% were unemployed/housewives (these women have either stopped looking foremployment or have never been employed before) and practised subsistence farming

An overwhelming majority of women (93%) indicated that crops from the field wereconsumed by their household, showing that women are working on the field in order toprovide food for the household The women spend up to two hours travelling to andfrom the field This figure is supported by evidence from the time-use diaries whichindicated an average of one hour travelling time to and from the field and up to twohours for some women

Women have to collect firewood/animal dung and work in the fields It was calculatedthat 64% of women spent between 30 and 120 minutes (30 minutes to two hours)travelling to the fields and this excludes actual time spent working in the fields Inaddition to this, they travel to the fields to cultivate crops to provide food for thehousehold, placing an additional burden on already time-poor women

Although women are responsible for all these activities they do not have access to thehousehold’s transportation means The following section paints a grim picture of theeffects of patriarchy when evaluating women’s access to transport modes

Ownership and the gendered nature of access to means of transport

Although a large number of households own animals, males predominantly use all means

of transport with a very small number of women having access to the household’stransport means It was reported that animals were used mainly by males for ploughing(65%), while women have to walk and head load Of the 99% (n=198) of women whowalked and head-loaded firewood, 95 (53%) households owned a donkey/animal/cart,

50 (29%) households owned a wheelbarrow and 19 (11%) owned animal-driven carts.Ninety-five (95) women said that their households owned a donkey/cattle/horse, yet theystill walked and carried water on their heads as wheelbarrows and animal-driven cartswere only used by men Head loading is strenuous and time-consuming, and has negativeimplications for women’s health

Given women’s transport burden and household responsibilities, they should have access

to all means of transport in order to free up some of their time More than half of therespondents (or their household) own a donkey, cattle or horse that could be utilised totransport essential household items such as water and wood Not surprisingly only 1%

of respondents’ households own a car This is consistent with findings from the NationalHousehold Travel Survey (NDOT, 2005b) which showed that income is an importantfactor in car ownership The National Household Travel Survey also found that there are