SA women's socio-economic equality shows slight improvement

The results of the latest MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women’s Advancement show that the socioeconomic status of South African women in the workplace in comparison to that of men has slowly improved over the past two years. The overall Index score of 74.7 for 2012 is modestly higher than the outcome of 74.4 reported for 2011, and 74.0 in 2010. However, the score of 74.7 means that South African women are still not equal to men in the workplace.

Philip Panaino, division president, MasterCard Worldwide, South Africa says, "The research paints an interesting picture of the socio-economic status of women across South Africa. While there are still significant inequalities between men and women, it is encouraging to see that the overall index score has improved year-on-year since 2010, signifying increasing socio-economic equality between men and women."

The MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women’s Advancement is part of a sustained effort by MasterCard to measure the socioeconomic level of women in relation to men, across Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Each indicator measures the ratio of women to every 100 men in the 24 markets covered by the research. Scores are indexed to 100 to indicate how close or how far women in each market are to achieving socio-economic parity with men. A score under 100 indicates gender inequality in favour of males, while a score above 100 indicates inequality in favour of females. A score of 100 indicates equality between the sexes. The Index and its accompanying reports do not represent MasterCard financial performance.

The findings for the five indicators are mixed. Two indicators show a superior reading in favour of women, namely the Tertiary Education indicator which shows a significantly superior reading, and the Regular Employment Opportunity indicator, which shows a marginally superior reading. The remaining three indicators reflect considerable levels of women’s inequality to men in the workplace.

• The Tertiary Education indicator stands at 135.3, which shows that significantly more South African women than men are enrolled for tertiary education.
• Regular Employment Opportunities indicator reads 102.1 shows that slightly more women are able to find income-generating opportunities compared to men.
• Workforce Participation indicator stands at 72.4, which shows that relative to South African men, fewer working-age South African women are participating in the formal labour market, in the sense of being actively employed or seeking work.
• The Business and Government Leaders indicator has a reading of 56.0 which means that for every 100 men in senior, decision-making positions in the South African public or private sector, there are only 56 women.
• Female business owners, defined as those who generate paid employment for others, are significantly underrepresented in South Africa. The Business Owners indicator reading of 37.1 suggests that there are fewer than 40 female business owners for every 100 men.

Independent economist Dr. Roelof Botha says that South Africa’s score for gender inequality in 2011, as measured by the Gender Inequality Index (GII) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is slightly better than the global average. South Africa scores 0.490 on this index with the global average being 0.492, where a score of 0 indicates equality between men and women.

"In terms of the GII, only four countries (Rwanda, Burundi, Namibia and Mauritius) in sub-Saharan Africa have a lower level of gender inequality than South Africa," Botha says. "It is encouraging to see the formal steps taken by the South African government to reduce gender inequality in the country; most recently, the Cabinet’s approval of the Women Empowerment and Gender Equality Bill."

Botha adds that the Bill is an important step in taking the issue of gender equality to a higher level through the concept of gender mainstreaming. "This has been established as a major global strategy for the promotion of gender equality by the United Nations and entails bringing the perceptions, experience, knowledge and interests of women and men to bear on policy-making, planning and decision-making," he says.

MasterCard is committed to empowering women through its corporate social responsibility platform (CSR) in the Middle East and Africa, which is focused primarily on bettering the quality of life for women and children. MasterCard does this by supporting a broad range of causes that support women and children through scholarships, financial assistance, educational programmes and various sustainability programmes.

In South Africa, for the past three years, MasterCard has supported Junior Achievement South Africa (JASA), a non-profit organisation that partners with the business community, educators and volunteers who work together to develop much needed entrepreneurial skills for young South Africans.

"In support of uplifting women and encouraging entrepreneurship in South Africa, MasterCard most recently sponsored a JASA programme which saw 450 female Grade 11 learners from 10 South African schools take part in its globally-recognised entrepreneurship development programme, JA BizVenture. The learners were taught entrepreneurial and life skills aimed at equipping them to start their own businesses once they graduate from high school, so that they can in turn employ others," says Panaino.

"We believe that South Africa has come a long way in giving women access to education and regular employment opportunities, which are essential building blocks to further empowerment, financial independence and leadership. However, South Africa still has a long way to go to ensure that women are given the necessary opportunities to grow into senior leadership positions in the workplace, as well as being able to access the necessary support required to establish their own successful businesses," Panaino concludes.

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