Occupational segregation of work and income disparities among South African women

P Lalthapersad

doi:10.4102/sajems.v5i1.2667

Abstract

Despite the increase in the number of women participating in the South African labour market in recent years, little progress has been made in removing wage disparities, eradicating women's marginality in the labour market, reassessing women's work or changing the traditional occupational ghettos of women. Not only does the South African labour market exhibit anomalies in respect of the gender composition of occupations, there are substantial differences by race. A good barometer of determining the extent to which men and women undertake different types of jobs, is to analyse the percentage of male and female workers per occupational category.

Highlights

The primary objective of this article is to examine gender segregation of occupations and the implications thereof on remuneration and income levels
Whilst male participation in the labour force is contrived on the absence of domestic and childcare responsibilities, women bear the brunt of unpaid work in the home
Blue collar work is primarily reserved for men, and white collar work is for women

Summary

Introduction

The primary objective of this article is to examine gender segregation of occupations and the implications thereof on remuneration and income levels. The gender segregation of occupations is complicated by a vertical dimension within occupations, that causes men and women to be hired at difi'ereQt levels. This phenomenon is clearly distinguishable in the managerial vocation where men hold the executive positions or regional managerial posts, whilst women are likely to be administrative and departmental managers. Such a rigid occupational structure along gender lines translates into economic inequality. To lay the groundwork for such an analysis, we begin by examining the results of the South African Enterprise Labour Flexibility Survey undertaken by the International Labour

Objectives

Results

Conclusion