It buys food but does it change gender relations? Child Support Grants in Soweto, South Africa

Dignity and Stigma among South African Female Cash Transfer Recipients

“…We interviewed eight women from 344 names on a database of women receiving CSGs (Patel and Hochfeld 2011). These eight women were purposively selected to represent different ages, number of CSGs and housing types.…”

The Utilisation of the Child Support Grant by Caregivers: The Case of Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality in Limpopo Province

“…The authors further observe that in the year 2006 the percentage of children in poverty fell from 42.7 percent to 34.3 percent (Pauw & Mncube, 2007). Patel and Hochfeld (2011) concur that the CSG provides a valuable safety net to poor households, with significant benefits for both women and children. Since the majority of beneficiaries spend the grant on food, it contributes to household food security and provides some financial security to women independently of their partners.…”

Poverty, Gender and Social Protection: Child Support Grants in Soweto, South Africa

“…The study however provided insight into women's agency over spending decisions and showed that women beneficiaries were the main decision makers about how to spend the money, such as clothes for children (79%), food (75%), medical costs (75%), school-related costs (77%) and transport (71%). While some of these services are free, respondents spent money on other costs such as transport to hospitals and school uniforms, which erode the value of the grant (Patel & Hochfeld, 2011). The poor in urban townships spend large amounts on transport in view of apartheid spatial planning that resulted in great distances between home and work.…”

“…A gendered analysis of poverty is therefore also concerned with understanding how other wide-ranging privations of a physical, social, cultural, and economic nature coupled with inequalities in power relations affect women's access to and control of resources and services. Other considerations of poverty from a gender perspective that are relevant is the shift from women as victims to agents of change and how women use these resources to bring about changes in their own lives and in the lives of their children (Patel & Hochfeld, 2011). Instead of focusing on women and their condition in society only, development policies now take greater account of gender which is socially acquired notions of masculinity and femininity and how these gender relations and power inequalities shape development outcomes (Henshall, 2004).…”