Abstract
High levels of unemployment in South Africa have shifted rural households away from a reliance on male migrant wages and towards a diversity of income-generating strategies. These economic changes have altered the role of women and the restrictions family members may try to place on their mobility and wage-earning capacity. In addition, the end of apartheid has lifted state sanctions on mobility and informal economic activity. This article examines the impact of these changes on rural women through a qualitative study of a rural community just outside the Durban municipality. One of the more visible changes has been the decline in marriage and the rise in numbers of children born outside marriage. High bridewealth payments have left many young people unable to achieve the markers of adult status, including establishing their own kitchen or household. Women's mobility is also increasing as they move for months at a time between the households of parents and siblings in rural and urban locations while looking for employment and educational opportunities. Young women living with their parents find less restriction on their mobility than experienced by previous generations due to their potential to bring home income to their parents. Instead, there is more conflict over their child-bearing capacity and controlling the income that they bring home. Young women frequently use the language of rights to assert their independence from parents while parents frequently call on tradition and morality in their attempt to cope with the rising numbers of grandchildren being born to their unmarried daughters.
Published Version
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