The role of community arts and crafts in the empowerment of women living in a rural environment

Abstract

ABSTRACTLeisure activities has always been associated through empirical evidence in the literature highlighting the economic, social and personal wellbeing of individuals and communities. Engaging in leisure activities fosters social bonds, improved understanding between individuals, and brings about a sense of joy and empowerment which contributes to improving individual quality of life. However, for certain groups in society, especially women living in rural areas, participation in leisure pursuits is often limited by societally imposed gender roles, cultural, and religious factors. This is compounded by the lack of free time to engage in leisure pursuits due to the burden of the domestic workload, child care and work. Government and policy makers are increasing their efforts to find ways to empower women to combat inequalities. Acknowledging the lack of literature on leisure-based arts and crafts and women empowerment in non-western countries, this qualitative focus group study investigated the effect of participating in a leisure-based project on the economic attributes of empowerment of 18 rural women in two municipalities within the Limpopo Province, South Africa. A thematic content analytic approach was used to analyse the data. Results showed that community arts and crafts projects serve as outlets for economic empowerment of rural women. However, such benefits can be maximized by addressing the challenges and barriers rural women are confronted with.