This study proposes to find out why women are not represented well in the rap culture in Cape Town. This interdisciplinary research falls within the realms of Feminist Psychology, Music and Community Psychology. These theoretical frameworks will assist in understanding the plight of women in rap music through the lens of gender and class inequality. The significance of the study is to identify possible ways in which women interested in becoming rap artists could obtain their goal. It will be of a qualitative nature using three focus group sessions.

INTRODUCTION
Historically hip hop has been male dominated. Incognizance of this, Unger (1979, cited in Squire, 1989) argues that it is important to study the areas in which women have been neglected or in which their treatment has been biased. For this reason the investigation proposes to explore whether or not gender discrimination in hip hop influence women's participation in rap music. The hip hop culture was popularized in the United States in the late seventies and in the early eighties it went back to its birthplace, Africa. Hip hop has been a form of resistance against white oppression economically and racially from the beginning.

The culture has five elements:

dj-ing, rapping, break-dancing, graffiti and knowledge of Self (Toop, 1985).

This study focuses on rap music because it is the most popular expression in Cape Town and the area in which women are not active. By definition, persons involved in rap music are called emcees.
According to Toop (1985) they are referred to as emcees because they poetically talk over a funky beat.
In the United States much research (Powers, 1995, Wester, 1997, Cook, 1993) has gone into rap music and its effects on the attitudes towards women. In South Africa there has been one documented (Haupt, A., 1995) study done on hip hop focusing on the articulation of rap as resistance and another (not published) focusing on the history of the genre in Cape Town. This is the third study on hip hop in South Africa, but the first that would focus specifically on women in rap music. The author conducted a pilot study at the South African Music Day Festival 1999. The results indicated that 98% of the participants did not know of one solo female emcee that has recorded an album; while 2% indicated that they knew of one female that recorded an album with a group called Neophytes. These statistics call for serious future investigation by social scientists.

The proposed research is feminist, interdisciplinary and since this study is based on a street culture (hip hop), the thesis's discourse is reflective of the genre. It engages in discourse between music, feminist psychology and critical feminist debate about the social psychological effects rap music has on female participation in the hip hop culture. The prime focus of this study will be captured through the lens of feminist psychology, community psychology, and Feminist Socialism theory. Feminist psychology seeks to intervene in ways that would uplift women in society and prevent further mental, physical, emotional and sexual abuse against women. Socialism fights against poverty and a system that forces the rich to stay rich and the poor to remain poor. Feminist Socialists argue that women cannot receive full liberation under socialism, not until all people are freed from equal economic distribution. Incognizance of the Feminist Socialist theory, Community Psychology will attempt to provide an alternative, yet combining theory of traditional psychology and feminism. It will aim to understand and explain why female emcees are in an oppressive predicament in relation to male emcees and how they could organize themselves to upliftment and empowerment.

LITERATURE REVIEW: A FEMINIST FRAMEWORK
The term feminism is as broad as women are heterogeneous. For, defining feminism is a trying task that should not be underestimated. Feminism is often referred to as an ideology that supports the empowerment and hence, freedom of women from oppression. Feminists often contend that the process of socialization is responsible not only for the internalization of male and female roles but also the very conceptions of femininity and masculinity (Vianello and Siemienska, 1990, p.19). In cognizance of this, women's minimal participation in rap music is then a definite concern for anyone who agrees with the feminist ideology.

Jagger and Rothenberg (1993) state that the goal of a feminist framework is multiple. First, it attempts to understand why male emcees have the power to exploit women in their raps, become millionaires and icons in their field whereas women are just labeled as divas. Secondly, feminist theory aims to understand women's oppression and how women in rap music, who evolved with the genre, should explore the way in which their position within the rap industry has changed and how it relates to other forms of oppression like classism. Finally the goal of feminist theory is with its foundation embedded in action and it is nonsensical to research the situation of women if one is not going to do anything about it! Socialist feminism moves beyond an attempt to create equality for women within the system that is not dependent on male domination for any exploitation of one group or another (Jagger, 1988). As a result feminism could be seen within a larger revolutionary context. For instance, women in rap must not only struggle to build a strong resource-driven connection amongst themselves in order to organize empowerment, but also challenge the power system and economic structure that is responsible for the present inadequacies.

Even though Socialist Feminists offer an interesting insight to the plight of women in rap music, how practical is it really? Since traditional psychology (clinical psychology) has proven limitations that feminists also share, what other alternatives are there to make sense of the predicament that female emcees find themselves in? This thesis proposes that in order to understand the plight of women in rap music, a more revised method of scientifically understanding humans should be called upon: community psychology.

In the context of this thesis the community psychologist should be able to assist female emcees to adapt to their resources and improvise their circumstances. Currently community psychology and feminism are both struggling to survive and grow in a misanthropic and changing socio-political context. By failing to integrate feminism seriously into the discipline, community psychology falls short of its own goals (Mulvey,1985). Assuming that community psychologists want to eliminate sexism, for example, and promote equality they will see the natural fit between community psychology and feminism.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research is concerned with the reasons why women are not represented well in the emcee culture. In other words, the investigation is interested with the male domination of rap music in the Cape Flats (Guguletu, Khayelitsha, Mitchell's Plain, Bellville and surrounding areas) and thus it aims to:

1. explore what keeps women from actively participating in the rap scene;
2. explore whether the scarcity of women in rap in Cape Town is because of gender discrimination.

The main significance of the study is to identify possible ways in which women interested in becoming rap artists could get to be. The researcher, applying three focus group sessions of eight participants each, using vignette (see Appendix I) will conduct a qualitative design. The vignette will consist of story of a young female emcee trying to succeed in the male dominated world of hip hop. The participants will be asked to discuss the vignette. This method was used because it allows the participants to express their opinions to the fullest as opposed to a quantitative study that would limit the insight to a study of this nature in that their voices would not be heard. It will be the task of the researcher to facilitate the discussion and direct it to solving the problem of women's abuse in rap music.

The sample will consist of 24 participants. 12 participants will be male and 12 will be female. In each of the three focus groups, there will be 8 participants. In the male only and female only groups 4 of the participants will be individuals who listen to rap music (i.e. hip hoppers) and the other 4 participants who do not listen to rap music and who are not hip hoppers. In the mixed group (4 males and 4 females), 2 males would be rap music listeners, the other 2 non- rap music listeners and the females would be divided in the same way. The 12 participants who listen to rap music would either be selected at hip hop events or by responding to the newspaper article used to inform the public about the research and encourage voluntary participation (see Appendix II). The other 12 participants will be people who are not interested in rap music. The objective for dividing the group into interest and non-interest is to generate different interpretations of women's minimal participation in rap music from a participants point of view.

The focus group sessions would be held in a conference room at the University of the Western Cape, on campus residence because it is the only convenient venue for the researcher. There the vignette will be distributed and the participants will be asked to read through it first and then discuss it by answering questions that the researcher has posed. The entire process will be tape recorded for the purpose of analysis. Thematic analysis will be used to analyze the data and would be pertinent in this case where the researcher draws upon the data for this focus group study. The function of theme analysis is to draw out the central themes of the discussions conducted during the focus group sessions and to analyze the significance of the results to the study.

This thesis will abide to the APA ethic guidelines for research. Informed consent from the participants will be obtained before they take part. Participants will be informed of all the aspects of the research that might influence their willingness to participate and the researcher will answer any questions regarding the project.

REFERENCE LIST
Cook, S. (1993). Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Haupt, A (1995). Rap and the articulation of Resistance: An exploration of subversive cultural production during the early 90s with particular reference to POC. University of the Western Cape.

Jagger, A. (1988). Feminist Politics and Human Nature. United States of America: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Jagger, A & Rothenberg (1993). Feminist Frameworks. United States of America: McGraw-Hill, INC.
Mulvey A. (1985). Community Psychology and Feminism: Tensions and Commonalities.

Powers, A. (1995). Rock she wrote: Women write about Rock, Pop and Rap. New York: Delta Publishing.

Squire, C. (1989). Significant differences - feminism in Psychology: Critical Psychology, London: Routledge.

Toop, D. (1985). The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop. London: Pluto Press.

Unger, R. (1979). Female and Male: Psychological Perspectives, 479, in Squire, C. (1989) Significant differences - feminism in Psychology: Critical Psychology, London: Routledge, page 78.

Vianello, R & Siemienska R. (1990). Gender Inequality. London: Sage Publications.

Wester, S. (1997). The influence of sexually violent rap music on attitudes of men with little prior exposure. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(4), 497-508.

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