Kehinde Oluwaseun Omotoso

Reducing the gender gap in poverty remains a priority for South African policymakers. Using the 2018 General Households Survey (GHS), this paper examines gendered multidimensional poverty in post-apartheid South Africa. The analyses draw on Alkire-Foster multidimensional poverty methodology to present multidimensional poverty measures for men and women. The dimensions and indicators used in this paper are slightly adapted to reflect the socioeconomic realities and circumstances that are unique to South African households and individuals. The results show a persistence in multidimensional poverty among women, as the magnitudes of multidimensional poverty measures remain higher for women than for men. Further findings show that the economic activity and health dimensions contribute substantially to poverty among men and women. Notably, contributions of unemployment and the presence of chronic disease(s) indicators for gendered multidimensional poverty are more considerable for women than for men. In order to further reduce gendered poverty, this paper recommends strengthening a social policy review that strongly promotes more job creation, health-enhancing interventions and potent ‘gender sensitive’ ideologies.

Technology plays a significant role in bridging gender gap in labour market outcomes. This paper investigates gender differential in broadband Internet usage and its effects on women‘s labour market participation. Employing an instrumental variable approach, findings suggest that exogenously determined high-speed broadband internet usage leads to increases of about 14.1 and 10.6 percentage points in labour market participation for single women and married women with some level of education, respectively. Moreover, further analyses suggest that married women are generally less likely to use the Internet to search for job opportunities and this could partly explains their low labour market participation rate. The findings suggest that more policy effort is required to bridge gender differentials in digital technologies and employment opportunities in South Africa.

Despite various policy interventions that have targeted reductions in socio-economic inequalities in health and health care in post-Apartheid South Africa, evidence suggests that not much has really changed. In particular, health inequalities, which are strongly linked to social determinants of health (SDH), persist. This study, thus, examines how changes in the SDH have impacted health inequalities over the last decade, the second since the end of Apartheid. Data come from information collected on social determinants of health (SDH) and on health status in the 2004, 2010 and 2014 questionnaires of the South African General Household Surveys (GHSs). The health indicators considered include ill-health status and disability. Concentration indices and Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition of change in a concentration index methods were employed to unravel changes in socio-economic health inequalities and their key social drivers over the studied time period. The results show that inequalities in ill-health are consistently explained by socio-economic inequalities relating to employment status and provincial differences, which narrowed considerably over the studied periods. Relatedly, disability inequalities are largely explained by shrinking socio-economic inequalities relating to racial groups, educational attainment and provincial differences. The extent of employment, location and education inequalities suggests the need for improved health care management and further delivery of education and job opportunities; greater effort in this regard is likely to be more beneficial in some way.