This paper is an analysis of the discourses and attitudes that emerged from a set of daily
journals kept by a particular group of township women during a training course for domestic workers
in South Africa. The principal aim of the paper is to examine the ways in which the women express
emotion, voice, and agency through the act of writing and reflecting on their experiences during the
training course. A secondary aim is to uncover those recurrent discourses and attitudes that either
empower or disempower these women from becoming effective agents capable of challenging
their positions in their families and society. The theoretical and conceptual framework for this study
draws on Appraisal Theory and studies on voice, agency and identity