South Africa’s care economy still rests on women’s shoulders, Stats SA finds

South Africa's care economy remains heavily reliant on women, according to Statistics South Africa's latest Gender Series. Both paid and unpaid care work, spanning childcare, eldercare, healthcare, and domestic tasks, are predominantly performed by women. Despite its economic significance, much of this work is undervalued and overlooked.

Women's labour force participation stands at 53.8%, compared to 64.2% for men. Women also experience a higher inactivity rate (46.2%) compared to men (35.8%). This disparity is particularly evident among married or cohabiting individuals, with women's labour force participation dropping to 62% compared to 84.8% for men.

The gender gap extends to household roles, with 20.7% of women outside the labour force identified as homemakers, compared to only 4.6% of men. This trend begins at a young age, with 8.4% of girls aged seven to 18 citing family commitments as their main reason for not attending school in 2025, as opposed to no boys.

Financially, female-headed households are more likely to receive grants and remittances, while few have employed household members. In the formal care economy, women still dominate, although employment in this sector decreased from 2.2 million in 2016 to 2.1 million in 2026. Female employment in care work fell from 1.9 million to 1.7 million during the same period.

Women continue to dominate most paid care occupations. In 2026, 93.6% of domestic workers were women, along with over nine out of ten pre-primary education teachers, almost nine in ten nurses and midwives, and 83.5% of personal care workers and 91.9% of social workers. Despite increasing female representation in medical professions, women still make up more than half of the workforce in these roles (56.5% in 2026).

The financial cost of this gendered care work extends beyond the hours spent caring, impacting the jobs women forgo, the income they do not earn, and the economic opportunities they cannot pursue.