Townships as Intersectional Spaces of Gendered Economic Vulnerability among Young Women

Abstract

Young women’s realities, particularly if they grow up in townships, are
produced through continuous negotiations between subjective economic
actions and constraints posed by the structuring of the township
environments. The structural constraints are reflected in the exigencies
and convergences of population density, youth unemployment and gender
inequality. These characteristics work together to create the social and
economic limitations that frame the township environment. The realities
of young women are not static but are subject to change. The change is
underpinned by women’s interpretation of their situation within the
experiences of dependency, instrumentality and vulnerability that
characterise their agencies. Against this background, women’s economic
actions are often marked by coexisting experiences of socio-economic
advantage and disadvantage that they navigate as they forge their realities.
This paper provides a discussion of feminised plans devised by township
young women to attain their desired lifestyle goals