Socio-demographic and household factors associated with the type of employment among working age (15-49 years old) South African women
Date
2020
Authors
Mhlanga, Samantha
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Abstract
Post-apartheid, the South African government has made efforts to address gender inequalities. However, compared to males, females continue to face high rates of unemployment. The quarter labour force 2019 states that more than 4 in every 10 females in South Africa are unemployed. Between April and June 2019, the rate of females’ unemployment was 31.3% compared to that of males which was 27.1%. Younger females aged between 15 and 34 years old are still marginalised compared to females above 35 years. Some younger females continue to survive through low wage type of employment with limited working schedules such as seasonal and occasional employment. In addition, low wage type of employment with limited working schedules, and unemployment contribute to the cycle of poverty which mostly affect females in South Africa. Low wage employment violates the country’s White paper and the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) policy, which aims to promote social justice and equality among South African citizens. The majority of females are single parents and have children that require financial support. Some females depend on the government social grant which, alone, is not enough to uplift their standards of living. Such dependency also puts financial strain to the government by lowering the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – negatively affecting South Africa’s socio-economic development. It also leaves female population marginalised in all socioeconomic, household and demographic spheres. Therefore, this study aimed at analysing the relationship between the socio-demographic-household factors and type of employment among females. The factors educational status, marital status, type of place of residence, region, language, wealth index, household size number, relationship to the household head and number of children influence employment among females aged 15-49 years in South Africa. Hopefully, the study will contribute to the BBBEE and other policies in formulating strategic ways of addressing employment inequalities affecting females. Methods: This study adopted a quantitative research approach and used a cross-sectional study design. The study analysed secondary data that was collected by the South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS). The data was collected from May to November 2016.This study selected, from the main data, a sample size of 8514 females aged 15 to 49 years old. STATA version 15 programme was used to analyse the data. The outcome variable of the study was employment status categorised into unemployed, full-time, seasonal and occasional employment. The predictor variables were age, marital status, educational level, language, household size number, relationship to the household head, wealth index, and number of children, region and type of place of residence. Descriptive statistics was used to present the frequencies and percentages. Multinomial regression analysis was used to determine the relative risk ratio of females engaging in certain type of employment relative to being unemployed. This was presented in both the adjusted and unadjusted model. Results: The multinomial regression analysis indicated that age is a significant factor of employment among females aged 15-49 years in South Africa. The relative risk ratio of being employed full-time, seasonal and occasional compared to being unemployed increased with additional year of age among females. The study indicated that the relative risk ratio of engaging in full-time, seasonal and occasional employment compared to being unemployed was highest among females aged 45-49 years compared to younger females aged 15-19 years. Females aged 45-49 years had 68.784 times higher relative risk of engaging full-time, 10.083 times higher relative risk of engaging seasonal and 11.603 times higher relative risk of engaging in occasional employment relative to being unemployed. The relative risk ratio of being employed full-time compared to being unemployed for younger females aged 20-24 years was 14.834 times higher, being employed seasonal relative to being unemployed was 4.537 times higher and being employed occasional compared to being unemployed was 7.245 times higher. Other factors that significantly influenced employment among females were the number of their children, region, language, marital status, wealth index, household size and relationship to the household head. Some of these results were significant in the unadjusted but insignificant in the adjusted model. A decrease in engaging in full-time, seasonal and occasional employment was found in all Provinces of the country, females who speak African languages, females from household above the mean of 5 as well as rural areas. The relative risk ratio of engaging in full-time, seasonal and occasional employment was less likely across all the South African Provinces. Females residing in the Gauteng compared to Western Cape Province indicated a relative risk ratio of engaging in full-time employment which was 0.676 times lesser, while engaging in seasonal employment was 0.534 less likely. On the other hand, females residing in KwaZulu-Natal compared to Western Cape Province, also indicated that females working full-time relative to being unemployed was 0.391 times less likely while working seasonal compared to being unemployed was also 0.534 less likely and working occasionally relative to being unemployed was 0.317 less likely. Engaging in full-time employment compared to being unemployed also had 0.480 lower relative risk ratio among females from rural areas compared to females from urban areas. It was also evident that the relative risk ratio of engaging in full-time employment compared to being unemployed was 0.523 lower among females who speak African languages compared to those who speak English language. The study further found that, the higher the level of education the greater the likelihood of securing full-time employment. This was evident from the findings exhibiting that the relative risk of engaging in full-time employment compared to being unemployed was 4.459 times higher among females with higher education compared to females with no education. Conclusion: The findings of the study concluded that the relative risk ratio of engaging in full-time, seasonal and occasional compared to being unemployed increased among females from all age groups. However, employment opportunities continue to decline among females from rural areas across all the South African Provinces. In particular South African females who speak African languages remain excluded from engaging in full-time employment. These results reveal the persisting inequalities that continue to affect females mostly in South Africa. This violates the country’s goal of promoting gender equality and social justice through the White paper policy, BBBEE policy and the human rights enshrined in South Africa’s constitution. Therefore, there is a need for the South African government to formulate strategic ways of addressing employment inequalities and promote more full-time employment among females of all age-groups in South Africa
Description
A research paper submitted in partial fulfilment of the Master of Arts in Demography and Population Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, 2020