W hen is a choice not a choice?: Ex periences of indiv idua l agency and autonomy by South A f rican fema le breadw in ners

As part of a larger Master’s study, this paper focuses on the individual experiences of agency and autonomy communicated by a group of South African women who have overcome traditional notions of gender through their role as primary financial provider for their families. Using data collected from in-depth, unstruc-tured interviews, and reading these through a phenomenological feminist perspective, I shed some light on the perceptions of ten female breadwinners (FBW) in this paper. It is the aim of this research to represent these women’s voices in order to understand how they make meaning of and negotiate their spaces and roles as breadwinners. In the course of the interviews and analyses, the realities faced by these FBW stemming from the Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces expose the hegemonic and heteronormative prescriptions of gender that still exist within our society, often concealed behind constructions of reform advocating gender equality. It’s not easy, every time I plan of doing that, something comes up.


Introduction
The women of South Africa have consistently played an integral part in the development of the country's democratic social order as it stands today (Jaffee 1988). Mass organisation and mobilisation in the struggle for liberation during the apartheid era was advanced by organisations such as the Federation of South African Women (FSAW) in the 1950s. In recent times, women have demanded gender specific social reform regarding the emancipation of women (Puleng 2015). Building on the political and social actions of female activists and women's organisations that opposed the policies and positions of the ruling apartheid government, South Africa has made significant progress within a relatively short period of time regarding the development of a constitution that advocates gender equality in society (Frenkel 2008). Since the disbandment of apartheid, there have been numerous examples of actions that have resulted in the equal inclusion and involvement of women in South African society.
To name a few, the country has instated the largest percentage of women in parliament in the world, experienced an increase in the number of women gaining access to education and, subsequently, a rise in the number of women entering the workplace (Ndinda & Okeke-Uzodike 2012). These achievements seem to support a feminist ideal of advancement in women's contributions and of gender equality in the new South Africa.
Having said this, the country also has some of the highest levels of rape and violence against women in the world -contradictory indicators that highlight possible gender disparities in the advancement of women in South African society (Mills et al. 2015).
Transcending the scope of these policy changes in the inherent patriarchal structures that pervade their lives (Hassim 2005), South African women have managed to play an important role in public life and contribute as a part of the economically active population. In certain cases, women have also overcome the traditional notions of prescribed gender roles by becoming primary or sole breadwinners in their homes.
When considering the reasons for women providing for their families as breadwinners, the scarcity of research literature pertaining to the personal perceptions and lived experiences of female breadwinners (FBW) in South Africa motivated this study's exploration of these lived experiences, specifically from the point of view of the women involved.

Methodology
Using a phenomenological feminist framework, the study took a purposive sampling approach to select ten FBW who had dependants to support. These women are all page 03 of 18 Number 35, 202135, ISSN 2617 aged between 20 and 50 years and as Table 1 shows, stem from a variety of ethnic, racial and socio-economic populations within South African rural and urban areas.
Through the course of the primary and secondary in-depth, unstructured, interviews with participants, a contextual understanding was developed, revealing the culturally given and experientially acquired meanings that South African FBW ascribe to their experiences within their lived environments. Phenomenology's qualitative orientation and flexibility allowed for a focus on both individual lived experiences, and collaboration with feminist perspectives. The resulting data, composed through an interpretive phenomenological analysis, presented an open perception of the phenomenon of breadwinning and the women whose perspectives shaped it, providing a platform where their explanations of "person" and "world" could be understood (Fine 2002).
The exposition of the collected data provides individualised, multiple and varied perspectives on FBW. Furthermore, the atypical yet gendered and non-traditional roles of these FBW shed light on the social expectations placed on women in general within the predominately patriarchal society of South Africa.

A brief overview
The global recognition of female breadwinners The role of "breadwinner" is characterised as providing primary financial support in a household and was, in the past, considered a traditionally male role (Meisenbach 2009 (World Bank 2011:194). Steadfast adherence to traditional, heteronormative gender roles means that men access their identity mostly through these hegemonic narratives and that the empowerment of women is often seen as a threat to such traditionally masculine positions.
As a result of the decrease of male breadwinner homes, the recognition of FBW is on the rise -a phenomenon that has not escaped the South African society (World Bank 2011; Lambert & Webster 2010). The occurrence and causes of this potential reformation of traditional gender roles has been noted in many studies conducted worldwide, in both developed and developing countries (Grbich 1994;Buzzanell et al. 2007;Yodanis & Lauer 2007;Cunningham 2008). Amanda Diekman and Wind Goodfriend's (2006) study conducted in the United States (US) with 244 male and female participants found that increases in women's equal access to education and employment since the mid-twentieth century has led to them undertaking traditionally male-dominated roles in the paid labour force. Within the South African context, this increase is unsurprising as 'women in post-apartheid South Africa have better career opportunities than their mothers had in the apartheid era and they can pursue various careers' (Carrim 2016:445). These changes have resulted in a situation where the household breadwinner role is shifting away from the traditional sole male breadwinner, and the numbers of women acting as the primary or sole earners in their families are increasing drastically (Meisenbach 2009 breadwinner role on white, middle class men. In particular, these studies address issues such as the crisis of masculine identity and the challenges faced by men who have assumed the primary care-taking role (Pfau-Effinger 2004). Of those researchers who have focused their studies on the experiences of the female partners and thus engaged in non-traditional roles as the primary earners in their families, the majority tend to be of an economic nature -such as those conducted by Gcabo (2003) in South Africa; Burgoyne (2004)  women, on average, earn 23 percent less than men do. They estimate that men earn a median income of R3,500.00 per month, while women earn R2,700.00 per month (Stats SA 2015). This wage gap is particularly onerous for female-headed households that are, by their very nature, more likely to exist in lower-income households that are more vulnerable to extreme pover ty. In these circumstances, economic society's lack of recognition of unpaid work, which is seen as an inclination naturally arising in the female disposition and not requiring any skills. This unpaid work includes all non-remunerated work activities occurring in the household, with the average woman in South Africa devoting 180 minutes of her day to these tasks versus the 80 minutes men spend daily on these tasks (Geldenhuys 2011). This also includes unpaid care work, which is any activity devoted to those who cannot care for themselves, such as childcare, or care for the elderly and infirm (Antonopoulos 2009 providers in their homes. It is also a pervasive and an ever-present reality of their daily experiences, meaning that although some women have been able to transcend traditional cultural barriers and rise to the challenges presented by primar y breadwinners' positions, true gender role reversal is relatively rare (Bittman et al. 2003). It is for these reasons that the discussion to follow focuses on particular findings contained in this Master's research study's results, which are those concerning the agency and autonomy of South African FBW role choice, and their perceptions of heteronormative gender practices.

Results
Finding autonomy in the FBW role Each dialogue began with the participant explaining what being a breadwinner meant to her personally. There were many similarities of meaning expressed by the group of FBW, such as the feeling of independence that the role of primary breadwinner brings, as well as a sense of security in being able to provide for yourself and your family. Nombuso, an attendant in a restaurant and a single mother of one, who also helps to support her mother and four siblings, expressed how important those experiences are to her, [y]ou know, all these people, I mean like my brothers, when they need something, they can just come to me. They don't go out, looking for help from the outside, they know that they must come to me. It makes me feel special … Sunette, a general physician who is married to an auto-repairman, said that she was thankful for her role as it was her independent nature that was attractive to her husband in the first place. Furthermore, Sunette stated how much she enjoys spoiling her husband, Other women were grateful for the opportunity their role provided them in terms of being a better parent. Martha, a divorcee, mother of two and accountant, asserted her belief that her role as breadwinner had allowed her to grow as a person and parent, and that she had lived a fuller life as a result. As an unemployed creative writer, artist and single mom, Ela also expressed fulfilment in providing for herself and her child -the sense that she was doing 'something worthy with her life'. The duality of the feeling of independence and control that the role of breadwinner affords was also discussed, with all ten of the women experiencing feelings of pressure and responsibility for others in their care. In some instances, as with Ela, these responsibilities imparted a notion of pride and strength of character, a feeling echoed by Rose, a divorced mother of two and executive administrative assistant, [f] Eight of the ten women responded that their role of breadwinner was a result of the necessity to take care of their families. None of the women in this group believed that they had been provided the opportunity to choose the role of breadwinner, but had undertaken the responsibility owing to circumstances of necessity. This is of some concern, considering the over representation of South African women in informal work, and formal work mostly in social or service industries, indicating that the majority of women in the country are poorly paid owing to a lack of formal training and are engaging in forms of income earning that can accommodate their obligatory family and care-taking responsibilities (Geldenhuys 2011 to the experiences of FBW overseas, the role of breadwinner that is undertaken by women in South Africa is as a result of economic necessity rather than the reversal of prescribed gender roles through the emancipation of women.

The lived experiences of FBW are gendered experiences
Often in culturally traditional societies such as South Africa, men and women are 'socialised into accepting a social hierarchy according to which males are in positions of power and authority as breadwinners and females are in subservient positions as homemakers' (Carrim 2016:446 [w]e see so many white male suicides because they don't feel any worth, they don't feel worth it anymore. So I think we need to realise that we have a very important psychological role in not taking their power away … still trying to be the humble one, the supportive one … Linda, a divorced mother of two and construction equipment manager, was reluctant to use the term "breadwinner" while describing the non-traditional role she fulfilled, so much so that she seemed unable to even verbalise the term during the interview. She said that it was best that she kept her role as breadwinner quiet '[a]nd never brag or show it or let anybody else know, it's got to be kept very low key'. Similar to Ronel, she made every effort to make her partner feel as though he was playing the part of breadwinner to prevent tension in the home.  (Pedullaa & Thébaudb 2015:118). Martha's devoted acceptance of her role as mother, while apportioning the blame of her husband's lack of interest in raising their children to herself, is indicative of the idea that women need to bear the burdens of others without complaint, in the ultimate service of family (Carrim 2016). That said, each of these FBW, Sarah, Martha, Caroline and Rose, expressed a desire to teach their children, especially their sons, to do chores around the home and be independent, so that one day their sons could be men who were capable of taking care of themselves, and for their daughters to become successful and self-sufficient women.

Understandings and conclusions
The experiences of the FBW interviewed were multifarious and therefore represent- divisions and discriminations of gender within our society that have been hiding behind constructions of reform advocating equality among the sexes. In actuality, the emancipation and empowerment of these women has proffered many opportunities and progressions that are incongruent with the outdated conventions and policies still practised in various areas of society today. These discrete forms of discrimination masquerade as socially constructed values that are accepted by women with the belief that they emphasise an egalitarian ideal. These hegemonic practises, revealed via the erudite discourse of the FBW's lived identities, manipulates these women into believing that the challenges that they experience are consequential self-sacrifices necessitated by their role, rather than resulting penalties of obsolescent systems used today that are based on previous prejudiced and repressive heteronormative gender prescriptions. The FBW's dialogues reveal distinctly unequal power dynamics between men and women within South African social systems, a dynamic that is legitimised on an interpersonal level by assigned gender roles, which continue to be internalised and played out by these "non-traditional" women. note that what needs to be done in order to bring about social change and gender equality is not only to pass legislation, but through education, inculcate change in people's attitudes, mind-sets and values, and encourage true gender equality within our society for all.