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Subject: search.filters.subject.Gender equality

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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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    Gender-union wage gap in South Africa: an unconditional quantile regression & coarsened exact matching approach
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Hlapisi, Nthabiseng; Gwatidzo, Tendai
    South African women have been fairing badly in the labour market compared to their male counterparts since pre-colonial times due to both cultural and legal restrictions (and discrimination). Despite the corrective measures (e.g. legislation changes) that were introduced by the South African government post-apartheid to improve women’s social status, labour market conditions remain unfavorable for women. Labour unions are actively advocating for gender equality as well as higher and more equitable salaries. However, the extant literature on unions and wages pay more attention on the impact of unions and wages. There is paucity of literature on the moderating role of unions on the gender-wage inequality. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the impact of labour unions on the gender-wage inequality in South Africa, using the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) data obtained from the DataFirst website for the 2008 to 2017 waves. Furthermore, this study uses more recent econometric techniques, viz. unconditional quantile regression (UQR) and coarsened exact matching (CEM) methods with interaction effects, on a panel of 12,881 individuals. These methods are superior than the ones used in the extant literature as they control individual heterogeneities, sample attrition and selection bias that may arise from individuals’ decisions to join unions. Both the CEM and UQR results suggest a strong positive relationship between unions and wages in South Africa. In addition, both models suggest that labour unions narrow down the existing gender-wage gap in South Africa. However, this impact is weakened at higher-ends of the income distribution as the magnitude by which unions reduce the gender-wage gap reduces at higher percentiles (i.e. the 75th and 90th percentiles). This is possibly due to high-incomeearners being individuals with higher productive abilities (such as higher levels of education and additional skills) and therefore having more bargaining power to negotiate their own wages in the absence of unions. Another possible explanation could be that high productive abilities are a signal to employers that an individual will be able to do the job better than individuals with low productive abilities. This leads to employers being able to better estimate wages for such individuals outside the bargaining power of unions. These findings are important as they indicate that either unions have a weakened bargaining power for high-income earners, or that the high-income earners experience less gender-wage discriminations. It is therefore worthwhile for policymakers to analyse such trends before implementing “one-for-all” union policies and other related policies aimed at reducing gender inequality
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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.