Experiences and Agency of South African Black Rural Women of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa
Abstract
This article seeks to highlight the experiences and agency of KwaZulu-Natal women through the theoretical lenses of African Feminism and the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA), foregrounding intersectional dynamics of gender, class, and rurality. The paper explores how rural women negotiate structural poverty, climate vulnerability, gender inequality, and socio-cultural constraints while exercising agency in livelihood strategies. Hence, it focuses on rural women’s ability to survive in environments beset by poverty and limited resources, and deems this laudable. The study adopted a qualitative approach and was guided by a phenomenological research design. In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with eighteen (18) participants who were purposively selected. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. Findings reveal that rural women articulate diverse self-definitions and community roles shaped by intersecting socio-economic and environmental factors, and that climate change exacerbates livelihood insecurity, gendered labour burdens, and resource scarcity. The findings also revealed that although climate change negatively affected rural women, they demonstrated agency through collective and individual livelihood strategies, including stokvel participation, informal women’s credit clubs, craft and agricultural micro-enterprises, and adaptive water-harvesting practices. The study contributes empirically to African feminist scholarship by illustrating how rural women’s agency is embedded in relational, communal, and ecological contexts, and extends the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach by integrating feminist insights on power, patriarchy, and gendered resource access. Policy implications include the need for gender-responsive rural development, support for climate adaptation, and recognition of informal women-led economic institutions in national development planning.
- Rural women in KwaZulu-Natal face intersecting poverty, patriarchy, and climate vulnerability.
- Climate change increases water scarcity, food insecurity, and gendered labour burdens.
- Women show agency through stokvels, informal credit clubs, farming, crafts, and trade.
- African Feminism and the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach frame women’s resilience.
- Gender-responsive rural policy should recognise women-led adaptation and informal economies.
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https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v26i2.1375
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Copyright (c) 2026 Thenjiwe Meyiwa, Thabisile Bellinda Maphumulo, Madoda Cekiso
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