Gendered inequalities in the South African informal economy

In the early part of the post-apartheid period in South Africa, a ‘feminisation of the labour force’ coincided with an increasing concentration of women in unemployment as well as in informal and low-paid work. In other words, and as observed at the time, an improvement in female labour participation did not seem to ‘buy’ much for South African women. Accordingly, the overrepresentation of women in informal employment has been identified as a key source of gender inequality in the labour market. However, a source of gender disadvantage that has received considerably less attention is the gendered structure of earnings and occupations within the informal economy. In this paper, we examine sources of gender inequality within the South African informal economy through an analysis of a recent labour force survey and by drawing on a multi-dimensional approach to understanding risks to income security.