Men continue to dominate SA’s labour market – Stats SA

Despite the number of women in the workforce exceeding that of men, men continue to participate in the labour market at a higher rate than their female counterparts report Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

Stats SA’s Gender Series Volume IV Economic Empowerment, 2001-2017 also revealed that the gap between male and female participation rates remained relatively stable over the past 16 years.

“Even though both sexes were participating at lower rates in 2017 than in 2001, the gap between male and female participation rates was slightly lower in 2017 (12.1%) than in 2001 (12.4%),” said Stats SA.

The report assesses progress made towards gender equality over time and revealed a number of key insights.

More information about the #GenderEquity report #StatsSA pic.twitter.com/MSc79Ssmzu

— SA Gov News (@SAgovnews) September 27, 2018

In regard to labour force participation rates, men had the highest labour force participation rates in Gauteng in 2017 at 79.3%, followed by a 75.7% participation rate in Western Cape. Limpopo had the lowest labour participation rate for men (53.6%).

By contrast, Gauteng’s female participation rate came in at 68.5%, followed by 62.7% in Western Cape and 41.2%in Limpopo.

Stats SA stated that there has been a positive relationship between the levels of education and the labour force participation rate across all population groups and for both sexes.

Those with a tertiary education showed higher labour force participation rates for both sexes and across all population groups.

“The participation rates for black African males with a tertiary education remained stable at approximately 91% over the reference period,” stated Stats SA.

Participation rates among black African females with a tertiary education were lower in 2017 (86.3%) than in 2001 (91.3%). In addition, black African females with less than matric were significantly more likely to be employed than their male counterparts.

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The report also found that the rate of unemployment was higher among women in an economic climate where overall unemployment rates for males and females grew by 3.1% from 24.6% in 2001 to 27.7% in 2017.

However during the period of study, levels of employment increased by 3.7 million across the board.

“In terms of earnings, the report revealed that the in 2017, 37.3% of males earned below R3500 per month, whilst 49.1% of females fell in the same category. In contrast to this 19% of males earned R11 000 or more compared to 14.8% of females,” reports SA Gov News.

Stats SA’s Chief Director of Social Statics Isabelle Schmidt, confirmed that more and more women are slowly venturing into skilled agriculture, albeit at low rates.

Domestic work and clerical work continue to be female dominated while plant and machine operator was one of the largest occupational category choices for males.

“However even when women are able to access formal employment, gender stereotypes and cultural norms often limit women to certain positions, which tend to be lower status or lower- paid positions than men,” stated Schmidt.

The report also showed that females were more likely than males to receive grants, with 5.9% of females relying on social grants as a means of survival for the period 2009 to 2017.

As a result of the aforementioned stats, there has been an improvement of 4.6% in the number of female-headed households that owned formal dwellings between 2002 and 2017.

But what about government? 

Things are looking up at governance level. Between 1994 and 2017, South Africa saw a steady increase in the number of female ministers (from 7.1% in 1994 to 48.5% in 2017).

In 2018, the gender parities among premiers and members of the executive committee (MEC) were 0.79% and 0.82% respectively which, according to SA Gov News, shows progression towards achieving gender equity in these arenas.

This observation also applies to mayoral positions in municipalities as 107 of the 257 mayors are women.

Sadly, gender parity has not yet found its way into justice sector as the report found that 70% of persons employed in the judiciary for the year 2017 were male and nationally, more than a third of the police workforce is comprised of women.

Recap in #GenderEquity report #StatsSA pic.twitter.com/Mx30SDA4Ou

— SA Gov News (@SAgovnews) September 27, 2018

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