NIHSS-SAHUDA

This dissertation investigates the formation of white female subjectivity in the life writing of three South African women, penned between 1868 and 1977. The subjects are: Betty Molteno (1852-1927), Hettie Smit (1908-1973) and Joyce Waring (1914-2003). I consider subjectivity formation as contingent on geo-cultural, historical, ethnic and socio-political contexts, as well as cultural and political markers of identity such as race, gender and ethnicity. My analysis of Molteno’s journals, letters, autobiographical poetry and life writing about her, Smit’s letters and autobiographical fiction titled Sy kom met die Sekelmaan [She appears with the Sickle Moon] (1937), and Waring’s trilogy of autobiographical texts I’m no Lady (1956), Sticks and Stones (1969) and Hot Air (1977) indicate these three women’s subjectivities as embodied and formed relationally. 

In South Africa, social workers learn how to operationalise the management functions of planning, organising, leading and controlling on the job by modelling and following existing managers and/or senior social workers. This points to the use of predictive knowledge, where management decisions are made based on patterns from past experiences, educated guesses and observations, which are limited to individual, personal experiences. For the frontline social worker responding to the dynamic demands of developmental social work, with limited work experience and no formal management training and support, there are several consequences for the Nonprofit Organisation sector and the frontline social worker executing these management tasks.

This study sought to investigate self-efficacy in vocational development of women in low socio-economic communities. The main aim of the study was to investigate the socio-contextual factors influencing self-efficacy of women. The objectives were fourfold: to examine the levels of self-efficacy of these women; to ascertain the extent to which self-efficacy influences vocational development of women and to propose a pragmatic women developmental model for acceleration of access to vocational development. The study utilised Self-Efficacy Theory (SET) as its theoretical frame-work which originated from Bandura’s (1986) Social Cognitive Theory (SCT).