Protests against gender-based violence like those seen in recent days sustain momentum towards ending it. However, success ultimately requires empowering women economically as well as in society, the government and their homes.
It needs not just formal workplace equality for the already employed, but far larger-scale action to address two fundamental social problems: unusually high joblessness overall and deeply unequal pay between occupations. The latter largely reflects the consistent undervaluation of women’s care work both inside and outside the family.
In 2020 the national plan to tackle gender-based violence and femicide proclaimed economic empowerment as one of its six pillars. Yet its actual proposals centre on ensuring preferential treatment for women in existing programmes, which are far too small to make much difference.
Evidence of restricted opportunities for most women in SA is easy to find. That said, the disparities are even greater by race than by gender.
In mid-2025 the Quarterly Labour Force Survey reported that less than 35% of women had paid employment, compared to 45% of men. For African women the figure was 30%, compared to 40% for African men. For white women, it was 45%; for white men, 60%.
Internationally the average employment ratio was higher, but the gender gap was larger at just over 70% for men and under 50% for women. Women’s employment level has fluctuated at about 35% over the 15 years to June 2025, but for men the ratio dropped from 49% to 45%.
While employment levels have stagnated, women’s economic independence has been bolstered by the social grant system. Most grants go directly to women irrespective of their position in the family. The Treasury’s dream of a single family grant could, however, reverse this achievement unless it is engineered to empower women.
Even if they have a job, women typically earn less than men. In 2023 the median wage in the formal sector was R6,000 a month for women and R6,500 for men. The median income for women business owners was R10,000 in the formal sector, compared to R15,000 for men.
In the informal sector it was R1,000 for women and R2,000 for men. The median domestic worker earned R2,000 a month. Again, racial differences aggravated gender disparities. For African women workers the median wage was R4,000, compared to R4,500 for African men, R20,000 for white women, and R27,000 for white men.
Working women are better educated than employed men, underscoring the greater obstacles they face in securing a job at all. In 2025, 10% of employed women had a university degree, compared to 6% of men. Only 35% of working women lacked matric, but almost 45% of men. In contrast, jobless women were only slightly better educated than their male counterparts. Just 3% of jobless women had a degree, compared to 2% of men. About 62% did not have matric, compared to 65% of men.
Unequal earned incomes for women and men mostly reflect occupational differences rather than unequal pay for identical work. Women are both disproportionately concentrated in services and retail, and less likely than men to be promoted.
In 2025 women made up 66% of employment in social and community services and 45% in business services and retail. But they held only 35% of manufacturing jobs, 25% in agriculture, and just over 15% in mining, construction and logistics. More than one in five employed women worked as a cleaner or cook, and just under one in 10 as a teacher or nurse.
Care work and education are clearly critical for society, building human and social capital that are vital for building the economy and democracy. Yet they are systematically undervalued in economic policy, statistical systems, and ultimately in pay.
In short, stronger legal sanctions and improved socialisation are necessary but not sufficient to address gender-based violence. Real success requires structural change in SA’s unusually unequal and exclusionary economy.
• Makgetla is a senior researcher with Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies.
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