Pretoria - While progress has been made to attain gender equality, stereotypes which continue to exist need to be addressed so the country can deliver gender equality, Statistician General Pali Lehohla said on Thursday.
“While the country has a very progressive Constitution towards gender equality… supporting the liberation for females and equality among the sexes, there are underlying practices that are still persistent, and these show themselves in the demographics right across education, employment and even death.
“These stereotypes have a way of being reinforced and it’s working at the … cultural level that I think we’ll be able to deliver gender equality,” said Lehohla.
The statistician general was speaking at the release of Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) Gender Statistics in South Africa 2011 report.
The report is the third of its kind produced by Stats SA. It looks at gender dynamics in the country.
The report found that of the country’s 51.8 million people, 51.4% are women while 48.6% are men.
Of women aged 16 to 64, 34% lived in rural areas compared to 31.3% of men.
The study also found that most households, headed by single women, were in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, while 3.7% of children lived in households with single fathers.
27.2% of black African children (aged 0 to 17) lived with both parents, while 51.2% of coloured children lived with both parents. A total 83% Indian/Asian children and 73.8% of white children lived with both parents.
The report found that more men were able to read than women, while the black and coloured population groups were least likely to have a tertiary qualification.
Additionally, black African women were more likely to have a tertiary qualification than black men.
According to the report, female deaths peaked at ages 30 to 34, while male deaths peak at 35 to 39. The average age that a person is expected to live in South Africa is 59.6 years.
The report stated that in 2010, the leading cause of death among both women and men was tuberculosis as well as influenza and pneumonia.
38.8% of women aged 15 to 24 years have given birth to at least one child, while access to medical aid is over seven times higher among whites compared to black people.
More men were likely to be employed than women, regardless of race, while the percentage employed was found to be highest among white men.
The first gender report was first published in 1998 followed by another one in 2002. – SAnews.gov.za
