'Sy is Die Baas Van Die Huis': Women's Position in the Coloured Working Class Family

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Periodical article

Title:	'Sy is Die Baas Van Die Huis': Women's Position in the Coloured Working Class Family
Author:	Field, Sean
Year:	1991
Periodical:	Agenda: Empowering Women for Gender Equity
Issue:	9
Pages:	60-70
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	Coloureds workers women family Family Life Cultural Roles Sex Roles
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10130950.1991.9675116
Abstract:	The author spent a year in Factreton community, a coloured working class suburb of Cape Town, South Africa, as a resident political activist and academic researcher. During this period he discovered that, while women appeared to be typically constrained in their extrahousehold activities, it was behind the closed doors of the home that the nuclear family model with its patriarchal head simply did not exist. The overriding feature of gender relations within Factreton households was the dominant position of women. The author argues that while women are dominant within these households, this dominance is still defined and restricted within a patriarchal set of beliefs and practices. The first section of this paper situates and discusses coloured women's position and experiences within the Factreton households. The second section illustrates broad conceptual guidelines with which it is possible to unravel and understand the gender dynamics of the coloured working class household and the position of women therein. Bibliogr.