South Africa

Education differentials

The Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) and the University of Western Cape (UWC) have stated that almost every white adult in South Africa is literate, and that about 25 percent of black adults are illiterate. This is an outcome of the earlier lack of education opportunities for blacks. In fact, 20 percent of women and 14 percent of men among the blacks were deprived of formal education at school. Only about 6 percent of South African women and men above the age of twenty have completed their tertiary education.

Today schooling is mandatory for every child from the age of seven to fifteen. Out of 9 million children eligible for schooling, over 1.6 million black children do not have access to education. For white children education is easily available.

►    77.0% of black adult females are literate
►    51.0% of secondary school students are female.
►    12.0% of females matriculate
►    48.0% of tertiary students are female.*
►    9.0% of engineering graduates are female.
►    33.0% of Technikon permanent educators are female.
►    31.0% of permanent staff in universities are female.
►    51.0% of Internet users are female.

(*About 6% of all women in South Africa graduate from tertiary Institutions
AED Sources: First South African Report on CEDAW, 1997.)
URL: http://www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/reports/cedaw1.html?rebookmark=1
        http://www.polity.org.za/html/govdocs/reports/cedaw2.html

The share of secondary school enrollment and an adult literacy rate of 77 percent among black women place South African women well ahead of their contemporaries in most other developing countries. At the secondary level girls outnumber boys, but the number of girls drops dramatically at the tertiary level. Less than 10 percent of engineering students are girls and there is low participation of women in the ICT sector.

Internet Usage

About 3 percent of South Africans use the Internet, and the majority of users are white. According to 2000 figures, about 51 percent of the total number of Internet users in South Africa were women - a higher percentage than in any other African country and in most developing nations.

The role of women in the ICT sector is largely defined by the extent of their access to ICTs. In 1996, about 10 percent of secondary schools had computers and only 2000 schools, accounting for 7.5 percent of the total schools in South Africa, had overall infrastructure, including telephone lines, electricity, and computers to promote the use of ICTs and their applications. More girls than boys attend secondary schools, but insufficient infrastructure limits their access to ICTs. Usually the schools that have adequate infrastructure and access are the ones white children attend. Although there are initiatives to improve ICT facilities in schools, creating more opportunities specifically for girls seems unlikely at this point.

Labor market participation by women

There has been a uniform growth in female participation in the South African economy during the last four decades. The available figures suggest that in 1960 women constituted 23 percent of the total labor force; this share increased to 36 percent in 1985 and 38 percent in 1999. However, the unemployment rate among women (27.8 percent) was higher in 1999 than of the men (19.8 percent). The 1999 data also indicated that about 10.2 percent of the total workforce (2.7 million people) worked in the informal sector, and women accounted for 48 percent of these workers. The same year, 22 percent of all managers were women, and half of them were black. Interestingly, only 2 percent of the total employed women workers in South Africa were managers in 1999 (ILO, 1999).[1]

Wage differentials

The developments in the last three to four decades have not improved the situation of women workers to a great extent. Even today, compared with women, men have better salaries and better jobs. At the same time, a white woman generally gets a better salary than a black man. The following table provides a picture of wage differentials in the South African labor market.[2]

Labor market participation of women in ICT sector

Although there is hardly any information available on women's participation in the South African ICT sector, it is evident that women do not have an equal share in the sector and that their access to ICTs is less than men's.[3] White men and women form the majority of workers in the sector. Fifty-five percent of workers in the ICT sector are men (SAITIS Household Survey, 1997).[4] Data on ICT skills by race and gender show that on a percentage basis men hold most jobs in the ICT sector.

ICT Skills Domains by Race and Gender (%) [5]

Women are mostly employed in ICT education, training, and development where they account for 39.2 percent of the total. In ICT sales and marketing, women have a 36.1 percent share, and in end-user computing a 36.4 percent share. Women account for 18.7 percent of workers in data communication and networking, and 18.4 percent of those in information systems and ICT management. Women’s participation in hardware and computer architecture is just 13.6 percent. Although less than 10 percent of women study engineering, a fair number of women are employed in the ICT sector. Evidently, not all of these employees come from an engineering background.

Wage differentials in the ICT sector

Data on wage differentials in the ICT sector were not available. Some gender-disaggregated data on income in the ICT sector were gathered during the SAITIS Household Survey. There is a clear indication of discrimination in the average annual salary: for male ICT employees the average annual income was US$17,261; whereas, for female employees the figure was US$13,711.

Government policy on ICTs

The South African government officially promotes equality and is committed to improving the status of women and other disadvantaged minorities. The initial step toward developing the country's telecommunications human resource base was taken by the Department of Communications through the 1995 Green Paper on Telecommunications Policy and the 1996 White Paper on Telecommunications Policy. The 1996 Telecommunications Act was based on these two papers.

Chapter 8 of the White Paper, "Human Resources for the Sector" focuses on the requirement of skill-building for attaining gender equality: "The Ministry supports affirmative action as a conscious strategy to correct the social and gender imbalances in our society. The Ministry believes the human resources strategy should be based on the principles of democracy, non-racism, non-sexism, and equality. Therefore the upliftment of people in the sector should be achieved by purposely redressing imbalances in the work force at all levels. This would require pro-active recruitment and training of people from previously disadvantaged groups, particularly in areas where the network is being 'rolled out.'"

Although the Telecommunications Act continued to give priority to skills-development and training in the ICT sector, it did not carry with it a clear "gender" perspective. Even so, the Department of Communications has continued to focus on underprivileged groups, including women.

Info.com 2025 provides education and encourages skills development with the help of telecommunication technologies. The program also supports the establishment of community information centers, public information terminals, and Internet facilities in schools along with teachers’ training initiatives.

Technology Enhanced Learning Initiative (TELI) promotes the use of technology for education. The projects under this initiative focus on developing course content and technology-related inputs beginning at the eighth grade, providing vocational education, and developing a curriculum for ICT literacy in schools, community centers, and industrial training locations.

SchoolNet South Africa is involved in propagating Internet use among South African schools. SchoolNet SA is one of 25 SchoolNets across the African continent. It is funded by the Department of Education and by private firms, such as Microsoft, Cisco, Nortel, Sun, 3Com, and Internet Solution. Internet connectivity, human resources development, management and development of content and curricula, and advocacy and marketing are some of its primary functions.

Government policy on gender

Steps taken by the government to bridge the gender gap include the formation of the Commission on Gender Equality, the National Gender Forum at the Department of Justice, and the Office on the Status of Women at the Office of the Presidency.

A "gendered" approach to telecommunication is visible in the basic goal of the Department of Communications’ Gender, Youth, and Disability Desk: "to integrate gender, youth and disability sensitive perspective in all departmental programs and policies." The Department will also ensure that empowerment strategies, policies and legislation designed to ensure more meaningful participation of historically disadvantaged citizens are sensitive to biases which exclude equal participation in the communications sector of the economy.” In 1993, South Africa signed The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW took effect in 1995, and a maiden CEDAW report based on reports by various departments was presented in 1997. The government has signed various other global conventions ensuring gender equality, such as the Convention on the Political Rights of Women (1953); the Convention on the Nationality of Married Women (1957); the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages (1962).

The new labor legislation has contributed to improving the workers’ security and provided better scope for the black community and women. The Labor Relations Act prohibits any discrimination based on race, gender, and other such factors at the workplace. The Employment Equity Act keeps a check on firms with more than 50 workers or a turnover exceeding the given limit by mandating an equal opportunities plan and the submission of a periodic report to the government categorized by race, gender, and disability. The constitution has allowed the existence of trade unions, but in October 1995 just 35 percent of men and 29 percent of women workers belonged to a trade union.

The Basic Conditions for Employment Act assures job security for pregnant, lactating, and disabled women, and includes provisions such as a 12-week maternity leave with 45 percent of current pay.

Sociocultural factors

In South Africa, poor black Africans are deprived of facilities that may be easily available to people from other ethnic backgrounds. Unhygienic surroundings, crowded households, scarcity of drinking water, poor sanitation, and faulty electric supply are still the lot of the disadvantaged. Although a great deal of effort is being put into development work, in many parts of the country women still walk long distances to fetch drinking water. The United Nations’ social indicators for 2000 maintain that 90 percent of the urban and 80 percent of the rural population have access to safe drinking water.

With increasing number of initiatives from the government, things are now changing. In 1994, people of both genders and from every ethnic background in South Africa became eligible to vote. Women held a share of over 29 percent in the South African Parliament in 1999.

Contemporary South African society is full of community-based organizations and NGOs, which offer training and education to girls. There are also institutions such as SA–WISE (South African Women in Science and Engineering) that not only promote women scientists and engineers, but also attempt to find out the difficulties faced by them. The conventional mindset, however, still seems to guide females toward "soft" careers and males toward technical jobs. This mental barrier needs to come down before women in South Africa can take full advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT.[6]

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