Acrobat PDF - Kubatana

Black women are either concentrated in low-skill, low-wage employment
in industries such as clothing manufacture, or in high-skill, but
relatively low-wage professions such as nursing and teaching. In the
secondary labour market, black women are largely employed in
agriculture and domestic work. Among those women employed,
35% of African women, and 23% of coloured women, work as
domestic workers. Within the informal labour market, African
women mainly occupy the “survivalist sector” comprising mainly of
hawkers and street vendors.
There are few women in positions of economic power. For instance,
in 1996, less than 0.5% of directors of large companies were
black women. Women formed only 22% of all people in managerial
positions, and only 9% of these were African women.
Urban unemployment figures for 2000
40.2% of African women are unemployed compared with 34.2%
African men, 7.3% white women and 6.2% white men.
The apartheid policies prevented black women from living in urban
areas where jobs were available. The migrant labour system led to
male migration from rural to urban areas to provide labour for
mining and industry. Women were left to eke out existence from the
barren land as remittance from male relatives was very little and
erratic.
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