Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37936

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Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.SDG-5: Gender equality

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    Pass Laws and social reproduction: A reading of the 1956 women’s march and its aftermath
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Mashele, Rixongile; Ponniah, Ujithra
    This thesis historically locates the experiences of ‘ordinary’ women in the context of restricted urban mobility, poor labour conditions, the disruption of family life and the pass system. Using archives and social reproduction as a conceptual lens, this research establishes that ‘ordinary’ black women knew what they were protesting for in 1956, that they understood the state’s efforts of consciously manipulating the costs of social reproduction, and its direct impact on their daily lives. They also understood that the experiences of men and women under apartheid were not the same. Importantly, these women utilised womanhood to fight against the apartheid state in their attempts of ensuring that African children receive access to resources and privileges equivalent to those of white children.
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    A Decomposition Analysis of Gender Disparities in Need and Unmet Need for Care and Support in Urban Gauteng
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Lusanda Mhlahlo, Siphesihle; Booysen, Frederik
    Gender inequalities are a pervasive issue with far-reaching effects across all aspects of society, including the economy. This study delves into gender health disparities, specifically focusing on need and unmet need for care and support. Using data from the Gauteng Quality of Life Survey of 2020/2021, the study employs logistic regressions and a decomposition model to analyse the prevalence of need and unmet need, and how these differ across sex. The findings of this study highlight a higher prevalence of need among women, with employment emerging as the most significant factor contributing to the gender gap in need. Equalizing employment levels between men and women could potentially reduce the gender difference in need by 15%. Additionally, the study identifies a self-reported history of intimate partner violence (IPV) as a key contributor to gender disparities in need, suggesting that reducing the prevalence of IPV among women to match that of men would help narrow the gender gap. Furthermore, the study reveals a greater prevalence of unmet need among men, once again linking a self-reported history of IPV to this disparity. These findings shed light on the complex interplay of gender, health, and societal factors, emphasizing the importance of addressing gender inequalities in healthcare and support systems.
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    Examining the Effect of Women’s Empowerment on Multidimensional Poverty: Case of South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Ratshivhand, Thonifho; Benhura, Miracle
    This study examines the levels and correlations of individual women’s empowerment and household level multidimensional poverty in South Africa, overall and by rural/ urban location. The Alkire-Foster (2011) techniques is employed for the construction of the Women Empowerment Index (WEI) and Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), and a logistic regression analysis is employed to ascertain whether women’s empowerment is negatively correlated to multidimensional poverty. The study uses the 2016 South African Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) dataset and estimates that 3.2% of South African households are multidimensionally poor, with a higher prevalence in rural areas. In both rural and urban areas, the standard of living dimension contributed most to MPI. Regarding WEI, women residing in urban areas (67.3%) are more empowered compared to those residing in rural areas (53.9%), with attitude towards domestic violence dimension contributing most to women’s empowerment. Findings from logistic regressions show that women’s empowerment is negatively associated with multidimensional poverty in South Africa. Women in older age groups and better paid occupations are associated with lower multidimensional poverty, also non-Black/African women and those residing in urban areas have a lower chance of experiencing multidimensional poverty, than Black/African women and those residing in urban areas. Overall, this study highlights the importance of addressing women's empowerment as a key strategy for poverty reduction in South Africa. The results suggest a need for customised strategies to improve women’s empowerment and reduce multidimensional poverty in South Africa's rural and urban areas.
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    The disproportionate effect of transport availability on the poor in South Africa: a gender perspective
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Everts, Lee; Posel,Dorrit
    Issues relating to the cost and accessibility of transportation for the poor in South Africa have been thoroughly studied; however, research on the unequal impact on women and men is deficient. Thus, this study's purpose is to explore if there are gender variations in transportation disadvantage and costs, and if so, to probe possible reasons. To compare gender differences in mode of transport and expenditure, the 2020 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) from Statistics South Africa is used. Households are classified into female-dominated ( all adults in households are female), male-dominated (all adults are male) and mixed households (both female and male adults present in households). This method is used as it helps to distinguish gender differences in the economic resources available to each household type (Posel & Hall, 2021). Descriptive statistics on mode of transport (private, public and walking) and transport cost as a share of budget by household type and purpose of transport (travel to place of employment and educational institution) are first provided. A multinomial regression is then used to investigate gender differences in mode of transport in a multivariate context and an Ordinary Least Squares Regression (OLS) is used to explore gender differences in budget allocations to transport. The analysis finds that when household characteristics across household types are not controlled for, no significant differences in mode of travel between female- and male-dominated households are evident. Once included, people in female-dominated households are significantly less likely than others to walk and more likely to use public transport. Moreover, female-dominated households spend more on school transportation than male-dominated households, as well as transport shares allocated to work travel
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    The impact of COVID-19 on the Gender Wage Gap in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Ngcobo, Khwezi
    The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in large distributional changes in the South African labour market. Prior to the pandemic, South African women were compensated less relative to South African men. This paper applies the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gender wage gap between February 2020, April 2020, June 2020 and March 2021. Results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic widened the existing monthly gender wage gap, while barely altering the hourly wage gap over the given period. The study finds that the main contributor to the gender wage gap is discrimination in the South African labour market. Key variables that contributed to the discrimination component across all periods are population group and having children aged below 7 years. Gender differences in the composition of the employment sector, having young children and hours of work also significantly contributed to the gender wage gap. These results suggest a need for gender- sensitive policies to improve the labour market position of disadvantaged individuals
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    A study of gender differences in job finding strategies
    (University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06-30) Ralefeta, Neo; Posel, Dorrit
    Men and women in the South African labour market face different sets of challenges with women persistently having higher unemployment rates when compared to men. How they search for and find work is an important aspect of the country’s labour market and may inform policy solutions on how to address the large unemployment gaps between men and women. Active job searching is a costly exercise and individuals may use passive searching methods and rely on their social networks to connect them to job openings. This research report examines the differences in job finding strategies between adult men and women; it groups unemployed individuals into searching and non-searching categories and considers their individual and household characteristics. Using data from the National Income Dynamics study from years 2012 and 2014/2015, the study shows that there is a positive correlation between men’s search status and their employment outcomes. However, this is not the case for women whose employment outcomes are not influenced by whether they search for employment or not. For women, a negative correlation is found between social reproductive work and employment outcomes, and a positive correlation is found between educational attainment and employment outcomes. Social reproductive work hinders women more than men from actively searching for employment and being a female lowers the probability of finding employment. This research report contributes to the literature by providing a national analysis of gendered job searching strategies and employment outcomes by using recent nationally representative data.