Publication: Gender in South Africa
Date
2018-06
ISSN
Published
2018-06
Author(s)
Kirkwood, Daniel
Abstract
Despite strong representation in
national politics and their higher levels of enrollment in
secondary and higher education, South African women face
numerous constraints that prevent them from fully
contributing to poverty reduction and shared prosperity.
Many of these constraints are underpinned by social norms
that cause women to: have less time for productive
activities; avoid science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) subjects in their formal education; enter
lower paid jobs and sectors; accept the use of violence
(including by their male spouses and partners); have less
access to productive assets. These norms, while seen across
many countries around the world, were not formed in a
vacuum. Thus, it is important to recognize the role that
specific factors in the history of South Africa have played
in the development and entrenchment of certain social norms
and practices. The legacy of exclusion emanating from
colonialism and apartheid disrupted family structures,
aiding transactional sex and the spread of human
immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome (HIV and AIDS), and leaving children vulnerable to
abuse and without male role models. Similarly, apartheid was
characterized by the creation of a large low skilled
population, and the legacy of this can still be seen with
poorer access to health, education, and economic
opportunities among the African and colored population.
Evidence suggests that the frustrations that young men feel
as a result of not being able to meet commonly held
expectations of manhood (such as providing for a family) may
result in high rates of crime and gender-based violence.
This note reviews available research on gender in South
Africa for the South Africa systematic country diagnostic.
Citation
“Kirkwood, Daniel. 2018. Gender in South Africa; Gender in South Africa. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/30025?show=full License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”