Jobs portal Career Junction shows that gender gaps prevail across many job roles, including leadership roles.
The group’s recent Employment Insights Report broke down how pay and job positions vary across major sectors as a result of a person’s gender identity.
The report used data gathered from Saongroup South Africa, a platform where top recruiters in South Africa post job listings for millions of registered job seekers.
One of the most notable findings from the report is that gender inequalities dominate roles at the top of the wage distribution.
CareerJunction found that across all sectors, men account for over half of all middle department and senior managerial roles, yet women make up less than one-third.
Over the past five years, there has also been no improvement to this metric, with the gender gap for managerial roles remaining stagnant.
“In terms of executive management/director roles, the gap is even wider, with men accounting for 61% of these jobs and women only accounting for only 30%,” CareerJunction said.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a statement on International Woman’s Day, said that the economic gap between men and women is still huge, with roughly half of all women in the country being unemployed.
The graph below shows gender distribution in executive directors: (Note: The grey graph refers to information not provided).
Role domination
CareerJunction said that the most female-dominated roles in South Africa include those pertaining to beauty, childcare, reception and secretarial work – so-called ‘pink collar’ jobs:
Regarding male-dominated roles, however, professions relating to demolition, truck driving, tool making, home appliance installation and repairs, as well as tax driving are the most dominated by men:
Gender balance roles, despite being hard to come by, are present, the most gender-balanced profession being commercial lawyers. CareerJunction said that professions like Business Analysis, Trade Broking, Risk management, and Representative/Sales Consulting are also some of the most balanced roles:
Pay Gap
Salaries in some of the most popular sectors, including finance manager roles, software developers, accountant roles, operation manager roles and sales consultants, differ significantly between genders.
CareerJunction looked at pay gaps within the context of men and women in the same job roles, with the same level of work experience, within the same industries and working in the same location (Gauteng).
CareerJunction provided the following breakdown in terms of role filled:
Finance manager role
- 10 years experience in the manufacturing industry, Gauteng
- Male: R60,000 – R110,000 (+22% more)
- Female: R50,000 – R90,000
Software developer role
- 10 years experience IT industry, Gauteng
- Male: R45,000 – R65,000 (+26% more)
- Female: R35,000 – R55,000
Accountant roles
- 10 years experience in the finance industry, Gauteng
- Male: R25,000 – R70,000 (+41% more)
- Female: R25,000 – R50,000
Sales consultant roles
- 10 years experience in, FMCG, Retail and wholesale industry, Gauteng
- Male: R15,500 – R21,500 (+13% more)
- Female: R13,500 – R19,500
Operations manager roles
- 10 years, manufacturing industry, Gauteng
- Male: R45,000 – R60,000
- Female: R45,000 – R60,000
Read: How much it pays to be CEO at South Africa’s state-owned companies
