- About nine out of 10 South African women (89%) and men (88%) have attended secondary school, and more women than men have gone on to post-secondary education (41% vs. 31%) (Figure 1). The two genders are about equally likely to lack formal schooling altogether (2% of men, 5% of women).
- Most South Africans (85%) say girls are “rarely” or “never” prevented from attending school because their families prioritise boys’ education, but 13% say this happens “often” or “always” (Figure 2). Three times as many (39%) report that schoolgirls are “often” or “always” discriminated against, harassed, or harangued for sexual favours by teachers, while about six in 10 respondents (58%) say this is rare or non-existent.
- Among working-age adults (aged 18-65), South African men are 9 percentage points more likely to have paid employment than women (45% vs. 36%), though men’s advantage is mostly in part-time jobs (Figure 3). Women are more likely than men to be unemployed and looking for work (43% vs. 35%), while the two genders are about equally likely to consider themselves outside the work force (22% women, 20% men).
- Women most commonly say the main barrier to entering and moving up in the workforce is employers’ preference for hiring men (37%), followed by the idea that women lack the necessary education or skills (17%) (Figure 4). Fewer women point to a lack of remote or flexible work arrangements (10%) or say it is not socially acceptable for women to hold paid jobs (9%), while 6% cite a lack of childcare. Men rank these barriers in a similar order, but they are 13 percentage points less likely to point to a preference for male employees (24%) and more likely than women to blame a lack of education or skills (24%) and a lack of remote or flexible work arrangements (18%). About one-fifth (18%) of women and one-tenth (11%) of men say women don’t face particular barriers to entering and advancing in the workplace.
More South African women than men have a post-secondary education, but women are more likely than men to be unemployed and looking for work, the latest Afrobarometer survey reveals.
Women identify employers’ preference for hiring men and a lack of necessary education or skills as the main barriers to women entering and moving up in the workforce. Fewer women cite a lack of remote or flexible work arrangements or say it is not socially acceptable for women to hold paid employment.
By contrast, men are more likely to blame women’s lack of education or skills, and a lack of remote or flexible work arrangements. They are less likely to point to a preference for male employees as a barrier to women’s advancement in the workplace.
A majority of South Africans say girls are “rarely” or “never” prevented from attending school because their families prioritise boys’ education, but four in 10 believe schoolgirls are “often” or “always” discriminated against, harassed, or harangued for sexual favours by teachers.