An assessment of women's access to natural resources through communal projects in South Africa

Abstract

This article examines how women in rural South Africa are working to increase their access to natural resources as a means of improving their livelihoods in the post-Apartheid context. Community-based organizations, in particular, have played a large role in women's efforts to improve their livelihoods. The authors examine the design of both formal and informal organizations and their impact on women's livelihoods, ultimately concluding that no matter how an organization is designed, women remain marginalized in a struggle to negotiate between processes of 'neo-liberalization and neo-traditionalism' within overlapping systems and structures of power.