Women’s month presents the chance to interrogate why women are still significantly less likely to be employed than men, with the latest QLFS data showing a 10 percentage point employment gap between the two groups.
Too often, however, these interrogations are framed as a matter of equity alone. While equity absolutely matters, evidence suggests something more profound is possible: when we remove barriers for women, we build economies that work better for everyone.
We can learn from the disability rights movement and the curb cut effect. “Curb cuts” were originally designed to help wheelchair users navigate city streets in the United States. Yet today, the benefits are felt by parents pushing prams, travellers pulling suitcases, delivery workers and cyclists. What was designed to remove a barrier for one group ultimately improved access for many others. Labour markets can work in the same way. The barriers women face reveal where systems are failing and can offer clues for where we can design more inclusively, for all.
We saw this clearly during Covid-19. Women accounted for two-thirds of the 2 million jobs immediately lost at the onset of the pandemic and then experienced a slower recovery afterwards. These vulnerabilities — such as unequal responsibility for care, limited flexibility in work arrangements, safety concerns, transport costs and educational disadvantage — were fault lines that already existed. Covid-19 just exposed and widened them.
Consider the case of paid and unpaid care: South African women spend around 3.8 hours a day on unpaid care compared with 1.6 hours for men (Time Use Survey, 2010). Women care for children, the elderly, households and communities, yet much of this remains invisible, undervalued and unpaid. The consequence is that millions of women face difficult trade-offs between caregiving and earning.
Women want to work, and we see this most clearly in how many applied to work in public employment programmes. By 28 July 2026, Phase V of the National Youth Service had attracted more than 1.23 million applications, 79% of whom were women. In the latest phase of the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI), women made up 75% of 17.9 million applications. Women aren’t less ambitious or capable than men - their labour market participation is low because the systems around them have failed them.
The answer cannot be to celebrate women's resilience while leaving the barriers intact. We need to redesign the ecosystem itself to provide the equivalent of “curb cuts” that can in fact help everyone. For example, when we invest in early childhood development, community health work and other care services, we do more than create jobs in care sectors. We also improve household incomes, strengthen child development outcomes and support economic growth. By compensating just 5% of unpaid care workers in the care economy could contribute R56.25bn to GDP by 2030, while addressing unemployment. Care, therefore, builds both social and economic infrastructure.
The same principle can be seen elsewhere. Transport is one of the biggest barriers young work seekers face. For many, the cost of attending interviews or travelling to jobs can consume a huge share of earnings. Women face an added layer of complexity because transport is also connected to concerns about safety. When employers, government and other partners work together to provide transport support, the impact extends beyond any one group. More young people can access opportunities, employers reach wider talent pools, recruitment becomes more efficient, and labour markets function better.
The same is true for technology. Platforms like SA Youth have been intentionally designed to reduce barriers associated with geography, data costs and limited work experience. The result is that young women make up 64% of the more than 4.7 million young people supported by SA Youth. Tools such as behavioural and problem-solving screeners, together with recognition of unpaid and self-employment activities as work experience, have also helped to better reflect young people’s abilities and driven the inclusion of women in sectors such as financial and business services, tourism and retail. Inclusive design creates broader access, and overcoming these barriers benefits all unemployed youth.
Skills, transport, safety, care responsibilities, employer practices and policy environments all interact with each other. When these systems are fragmented, people fall through the gaps. When they are coordinated, pathways into opportunity become clearer.
One of South Africa's most compelling examples of how coordination increases access is in the Global Business Services sector. Since 2018, the sector has created 153,574 jobs, with 90% going to young people and 64% to women. This did not happen by accident but through intentional collaboration between industry bodies, employers, government, training providers and pathway partners.
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator’s economic modelling suggests some of the largest reductions in unemployment will come not from isolated programmes but from large-scale coordination across interconnected systems. The challenge before us is not only to create jobs, but to amplify the impact of existing programmes.
As Women's Month draws to an end, we should recognise that women's economic inclusion is not a peripheral issue or a special-interest agenda, but rather a blueprint for building a stronger economy for all. The barriers they face illuminate where pathways to opportunities are broken. The solutions that fix these breaks create benefits that extend far beyond women themselves.
When we design systems that work for those facing the greatest obstacles, we can unlock talent, productivity and participation at scale, which may be one of the smartest economic investments South Africa can make.
