AD1078: South Africans overwhelmingly say police, courts are failing to protect women and girls against discrimination and harassment

The South African Constitution sees the achievement of gender equality as central to  building a democratic and inclusive society. But Statistics South Africa’s (2024) recent report  on women’s empowerment reveals significant gaps.  

In terms of economic opportunity, despite a 4.9-percentage-point gain in women’s labour force participation over the past decade, their rate still trails men’s (55.8% vs. 65.6% in Quarter  2 of 2024), and women are generally paid less than men for doing the same work ((Statistics  South Africa, 2024; Kumalo & Nkomo, 2024). According to South Africa’s 2025 Food Security  Index report, female-headed households are more vulnerable to food insecurity than male headed households, underscoring gender disparities in access to nutrition (African News  Agency, 2025). 

But women’s empowerment is not limited to employment and economic security: Ensuring  women’s full participation in society also demands that they be free from the threat of  violence (UN Women, 2024). South Africa’s rates of gender-based violence (GBV) remain  stubbornly high, despite President Cyril Ramaphosa’s declaration of GBV as a national  emergency in 2019 (Leach, 2025). And more than a year after he signed the Gender-Based  Violence and Femicide Act into law, the national council meant to coordinate efforts to  tackle GBV and femicide is yet to be established (Roos, 2025). 

The country’s first-ever national GBV prevalence study found that more than 7.3 million South  African women aged 18 years and older (33%) have experienced physical violence at some  point in their lives (South African Government News Agency, 2024). 

Other areas have seen notable progress even if challenges remain. School enrolment for girls  has increased exponentially. At university level, both enrolment and completion rates are  greater for women than for men, although gender activists are quick to point out the  underrepresentation of women in crucial fields of study such as science, technology,  engineering, and mathematics (STEM) (Chimoio, 2024).  

Women hold 25.8% of top management jobs in the private sector and 43.5% of seats in  Parliament, up from 27.7% at the advent of democracy in 1994. Women also constitute one third of the Constitutional Court, 48% of the Supreme Court of Appeal bench, and 40% of the  High Court (Buthelezi, 2024; Swarts, 2025). 

Ahead of 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children (25 November 10 December) (South African Government, 2024) and a national shutdown that activists  have called for 21 November to protest against GBV (Khulu, 2025), this dispatch offers a  citizens’ perspective on the effectiveness of strategies to empower women in South Africa.  Survey findings suggest that women continue to face discrimination, harassment, and  barriers in various facets of life, both public and private.

South African women are more likely than men to have higher education, but they are also  more likely to be unemployed and looking for work. And while few respondents say that  families still prioritise boys’ education over girls’, significant minorities report that husbands  and relatives prevent women from taking employment and that sexual harassment of  women and girls in public spaces is common. Four in 10 citizens say that schoolgirls face  discrimination, harassment, and requests for sexual favours from their teachers.  

Most South Africans think women and girls are likely to be believed if they complain of  discrimination or harassment, but an overwhelming majority say the police and courts need  to do more to protect women and girls from such treatment.  

And while most citizens support women’s equal chance at being elected for public office,  the share who espouse this view has declined since Afrobarometer’s previous survey in 2022.