Women and girls bear the brunt of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in South Africa — a fact so stark and painful, we need no reminding of it as we head into the second Presidential Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide on 1 and 2 November. 

An equally well-known fact is that women bear the brunt of poverty and unemployment, driving their vulnerability to economic dependence, and trapping many in abusive, risky and transactional relationships for the sake of survival. 

Women’s economic empowerment is recognised at the highest levels of government as a key imperative to reduce SGBV and mitigate its fallout. President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the second Women’s Economic Assembly on 7 October, saying work must be done to elevate the status of women in the economy. The President added that in the second quarter of 2022, 47% of South African women aged 15 to 64 were recorded as economically inactive, compared with 36% of their male counterparts. 

“You have to be at the head of the boardroom tables,” he said, and spoke of initiatives in the automotive industry, the agricultural sector and procurement.  

But we believe there is another strategic way to advance women’s economic power. It is not only about getting women to the boardroom table, but also about recognising, valuing and investing in the work already being done in our care economy — predominantly by poor black women. It’s about elevating and giving power to women where they already are. 

Globally and at home, the childcare and education sector is one of the few that is female dominated. Unfortunately, it is commonly associated with low status and low pay, in keeping with a stubborn trend of undervaluing and taking for granted women’s social and domestic labour.  

Entrenched arrangements of childcare, power and privilege also continue to drive gender inequality and intergenerational poverty, keeping black women in particular on the margins of social and economic life, and thwarting the future prospects of their children. 

We believe that investment in the women-led early childhood development (ECD) sector has the power to disrupt this cycle. 

State investment in early childhood development services is a strategic way in which to further the economic empowerment of women and combat gender-based violence.
(Photo: iStock)

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There is ample recognition of the short-, medium- and long-term importance of ECD in combatting poverty, inequality and unemployment. Ramaphosa noted in his 2022 State of the Nation Address: “The social economy, including ECD … has significant potential not only to create jobs, but to provide vital services that communities need.”  

But despite the proven multiplier effect of ECD for human capital development, financing for the sector continues to be a drop in the ocean of what we need to reap the rewards of a women-led, adequately funded and high-quality ECD sector. 

The Department of Basic Education’s ECD Census 2021 found that more than 90% of key staff at early learning programmes (ELPs) are women.  According to the Women’s Report published in 2021, ECD services are predominantly provided by nonprofit organisations, subsistence entrepreneurs, or social micro enterprises (particularly in poor communities). In other words, the ECD sector is full of women entrepreneurs. 

There is a very real possibility of rapidly upscaling these livelihood opportunities. But the expansion and development of the ECD workforce are thwarted by low pay, poor working conditions and an inapt institutional framework, including a skilling approach that often excludes those without a Grade 12 (the majority of the workforce). 

As it stands, only roughly 0.03% of South Africa’s national expenditure is on early learning, nutrition support and responsive parenting interventions for children aged zero to five. The main public financing for ECD programmes is through a “per child per day subsidy.” The subsidy is distributed to registered ECD programmes to support their quality, and reduce the cost of programmes for primary caregivers. The value of the subsidy is R17 per child per day, for 264 days a year, amounting to R4,488 per child per year. Only 40% of this may be used for salaries.

Currently, less than 25% of children under six access an ELP in South Africa. Achieving universal access to ELPs would create more than 300,000 additional direct jobs in the sector. This would increase the overall employment rate by 1.27 percentage points, and the employment rate for women by 2.8 percentage points, reducing the gender employment gap from 2.88 to just 0.08 percentage points. Improving skills and working conditions among the existing workforce will boost the livelihoods of between 200,000 and 300,000 workers, most of them women.

The provision of affordable ECD programmes will also enable at least one million additional women to participate in economic activity, by relieving them of the disproportionate burden of unpaid care — so they can in fact pursue sitting at the heads of boardroom tables. 

It is no accident that a 2015 Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities report on the status of women in the South African economy recommended that “…accessible and affordable childcare facilities such as crèches and nursery schools and ECD centres are made available in order to promote women’s increased participation rates within the economy, and in self-employed and entrepreneurial activities of women”.

Better state investment in ECD is clearly a strategic and low-hanging fruit in the fight against the poverty and unemployment that drives SGBV. It represents an unmissable opportunity to create livelihoods and reduce barriers to work and job-seeking, thereby promoting women’s agency, independence and security. DM/MC

Laura Brooks is an economist at Ilifa Labantwana. Sanja Bornman is an independent gender law and policy specialist.