"She does not want to cook for me": Zulu women and food preparation at the crossroads of courtship and dating. Issue 4 (1st October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ojong, Vivian Besem; Ndlovu, Joram
• Is Part Of: Agenda. Volume 30:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 36
• Page End: 45
• Publication Date: 2016-10-01
• Subjects: food -- gender roles -- empowerment -- gender discourses -- dating -- courtship; Feminism -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Africa -- Periodicals; Gender mainstreaming -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Gender mainstreaming -- Africa -- Periodicals; Sexism -- South Africa -- Periodicals; Sexism -- Africa -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 305.4
• DOI: 10.1080/10130950.2017.1313588
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1013-0950

Abstract

Abstract: Women continue to play critical roles in our society both formally and informally. One such role; especially in the private space of the home, is the expectation placed on a woman to prepare food. Such expectations have generated embedded meanings for Zulu women, who are the focus of this study. In this study five men in courtship relationships with women were interviewed. We show through in-depth interviews of 20 women (10 working and 10 non-working), five men and two focus groups how contemporary Zulu women reproduce, resist and rebel against gender cultural constructions in the context of food preparation for men during dating and courtship. We analyse the women's behaviour using Hofstede's 'uncertainty avoidance index' and 'indulgence versus self-restraint' concepts to explain the women's positioning and struggle with two forms of identity. In 1988 Mohanty warned against the danger of Western feminism trapping the African woman into a fixed subordinated identity. This current research shows how African women are resisting a cultural requirement and how they are trapped by it as they try to exercise agency. The findings show that Zulu women want to apply the current knowledge of women's empowerment but find it difficult because they cannot divorce themselves from their cultural context; they feel that the discourses of women's empowerment (especially pertaining to the area of food preparation during dating and courtship) is not practical in their context. The findings revealed through a patriarchal lens how men in such relationships positioned themselves at privilege to benefit from cultural gender expectations of women, and how through the negotiating power of the women they are still able to give away some power.