Urbanisation and Women’s Health in South Africa
Abstract
For many decades the migrant labor system and the influx control legislation in South Africa exacerbated male- dominant patterns of migration typical of Africa. In recent years, however, and especially following the easing of influx control legislation in 1986, migration in South Africa has increasingly involved women.
This paper reports on a study conducted in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, which explored the relationship between urbanisation and the health of women. The objectives were to relate age, migration, length of stay in urban areas, employment status, and occupation to the health, including reproductive health, of women living in Khayelitsha. Interviews with 659 women (61 households had no senior woman) revealed that women enjoyed considerable social support through their neighbours, church organisations, and women’s organisations. Women who lived in the most deprived section of Khayelitsha enjoyed more support from their neighbours but reported less satisfaction with the area in which they lived. Child-care support was poor and a considerable proportion of the women were disempowered by their male partners. More than 90 percent of the women had access to antenatal care. Recent in- migrants had more pregnancies, were less aware of screening for cervical cancer, less likely to have had a Pap smear, less knowledgeable about where to have a Pap smear done, and less likely to have heard of AIDS. More women were aware of AIDS (86%) than Pap smears (45%). More than half of those of childbearing age used contraception, mainly intramuscular hormones (76%). A significant proportion (53%) of the women reported that they had had their first pregnancy as teenagers and younger, less educated women were more likely to have had adolescent pregnancies.
Policy makers are confronted by a compelling need to redress well-known urban-rural inequalities in health care in South Africa. Policy attention must also be given to the increasing urbanisation of women and the growing health care needs in urban areas. (AfrJRep rod Health l997;l(1):45—55)
Full Text:
PDFReferences
United Nations Fund for Population Activities. Rome declaration on population and the urban future. Rome: United Nations Fund for Population Activities, September 1—4, 1980.
Horton R. The infected metropolis. Lancet 1996;347: 134—5.
Fair TJD. The urbanisation process in South Africa. RSA2000. Dialogue with the future, 1985;7(l):1—6.
Dewar D, Todes A, Watson V. Working paper no. 21. Cape Town: Urban Problems Research Unit, University of Cape Town, 1982.
The Urban Foundation. Policies for a new urban future. Urban Debate 2010. Population Trends 1990;l.
Wilson F. South Africa: the cordoned heart. Cape Town: Gallery Press and New York/London: W.W.Norton and Company, 1986. In association with Southern African Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town, and Center for Documentary Photography, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
Miller BD. The endangered sex. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981.
Chen LC, et al. Mortality impact of an MCH-FP program in Matlab, Bangladesh. Stud Fam Plann 1983; 14: 199—209.
World Health Organization. Health of women. Geneva: WHO, October/November 1985.
Department of National Health and Population Development. Health Trends in South Africa 1993. Pretoria: Department of National Health and Population Development, 1994.
Morokvasic M. Birds of passage are also women. mt Migr Rev 1984;18(4):886—907.
Khoo SE, Smith PC, Fawcett JT. Migration of women to cities: the Asian situation in comparative perspective. mt Migr Rev 1984;18(4):l247—63.
Cooper D, Pick WM, Myers JE, Hoffman MN, Sayed AR, Kiopper JML. Urbanisation and women’s health in Khayelitsha: demographic and socio-economic profile. South AfrMedJ 1991;79:423—7.
Pick WM, Cooper D, Kiopper JML, Myers JE, Hoffman MN, Kuhn LA. Study of the effects of urbanisation on the health of women in Khayelitsha, Cape Town: rationale and methods. Cape Town: Department of Community Health, University of Cape Town, 1990; Working paper no. 1.
Pick WM, Makhlouf-Obermeyer C. Urbanisation, household composition and the reproductive health of women in a South African city. Soc Sci Med 1996;43(10):l431—41.
Van der Vliet V. Staying single: a strategy against poverty? Carnegie conference paper no. 116. Second Carnegie inquiry into poverty and development in Southern Africa, April 1984.
de Soto H. The other path: the invisible revolution in the Third World. New York: Harper and Row, 1990:8.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.