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Sciences is very low (Diale, Buchner, Buthelezi, Gledhill, Grayson & Kgabi, 2009). According to Ellis (2008), out of four published scientists, only one of them is a woman and three are men. This is an indication that South Africa has a serious problem in gender equality in science education.
In the workplace, gender imbalances persist especially in SET fields. The South African economy is threatened by these inequalities in this sector. A research study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) on women’s participation in industrial Science, Engineering and Technology in 16 companies regarding gender representation revealed that women were underrepresented in the Science, Engineering and Technology sectors. The factors pronounced to prohibit women’s participation in Science, Technology and Engineering are the working environment, gender stereotypes, male image of science, lack of strong female role models and a lack of gender equity policy in the workplaces (Moletsane, & Reddy, 2011a). Other reasons that hinder their success in science education is that teachers, parents and their peers do not expect girls to excel in this field.
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The Constitution is the foundation of all institutions of South African society, including education.
Chapter 2 of the Constitution is a Bill of Rights which enumerates the civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights of the citizens of South Africa. Most of the human rights apply to all people of South Africa. The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa was formulated based on equality and equity, rights, freedoms and dignity for its citizens. According to the Constitution, no human being shall experience any form of discrimination because of his or her gender and race.
With regard to education, every citizen has the right to education and according to the Constitution, the government should ensure that every individual is able to progress and has access to higher education. Learners are protected by the South African Schools Act 84 of 1996 that states that schools must provide learners with educational needs without unfair discrimination of any form.
The government has given school governing bodies the authority to develop policies to enable them to implement gender equality policies effectively (Diko, 2007). This then should form the basis for the need to ensure gender equity and equality in schools, and the important role played by teachers in ensuring gender equity. This brings to the fore the need for this study to Gaine insight into teachers’ understanding, experiences, and views about gender equity in education, especially in science education, considering the low levels of scientists and the need to encourage more learners, particularly girls to study science.
The Employment Equity Act of 1998 prohibits unfair discrimination against employees with relation to their sex and gender. According to the Act, employees should receive fair treatment and be given equal opportunities in employment. Women are still given lesser opportunities in the workforce as in South Africa, there is still a gender gap in employment. According to the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, every employer is obliged to implement affirmative action in order to achieve employment equity. Everybody must be given equal employment opportunities without any form of unfair discrimination.
The data from Statistics South Africa (2014) shows that the employment rate for men is higher than the employment rate for females. There are approximately 84, 4% males employed as
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compared 73,3% females with tertiary education. Employees with matric 59,6% are males and 44,2% are females. Employees without matric 38,8% are males and 26,7% are females (Stats SA, 2014). These statistics highlight that there are more males in employment than their female counterparts. Table 2.2 shows employed people by gender, occupation and population.
Table 2.2. Employed people by gender, occupation, and population (adapted from Stats SA Q4:2014)
Race Employed women (%) Employed men (%)
Skilled Semi-skilled Low skilled Skilled Semi-skilled Low skilled
White 56,6 42,1 1,3 60,4 35,7 3,9
Indian/Asian 44,8 53,1 2,1 46,5 47,7 5,8
Coloured 20,1 51,8 28,1 19,0 45,0 27,0
Black African 17,1 40,5 42,4 14,7 58,7 26,6
Note: 'Skilled' includes manager, professional and technician occupations; 'semi-skilled' includes clerk, sales and services, skilled agriculture, craft and related trade and plant and machine operator occupations; 'low-skilled' includes elementary and domestic worker occupations.
Table 2.2 shows the statistics of employment by occupation, population group and sex for Quarter 4 of the year 2014 as reported by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA, 2014). The table shows that regardless of gender, White and Indian/Asian population groups are more dominant in skilled occupations relative to Black African and Coloured population groups. Table 2.2 shows that the white population group dominates the skilled occupations, irrespective of gender. Irrespective of population group, there was a small percentage difference between men and women in the skilled occupations, for example, 17.1% Black African women compared to 14.7% Black African men. It is noteworthy that, whilst among the Whites, Indians and Coloureds there was a small percentage difference between women and men who were in semi-skilled occupations, in the Black African population there was a larger percentage of men (58.7%) in semi-skilled occupations compared to women (40.5%). The most important statistics in relation to the current study is that there was a much larger percentage of Black African women (42.4%) in low skilled occupations compared to
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Black African men (26.6%). Generally, most of the skilled occupations require Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology education at high school and tertiary levels, and therefore the dominance of Black African women in low skilled occupations suggests that there is a much higher percentage of Black African women who have no education in these subjects compared to their counterparts (Black African men). Thus, Black African women are the most under-represented in the Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology sectors.
The cabinet of RSA adopted the National Policy Framework for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equity or “Gender Policy”, 2000. The Gender Policy framework outlines South Africa’s vision for gender equality and sets out how it intends realising its gender goals. The policy framework aims to place gender issues at the centre of the transformation process within all structures, institutions, procedures, practices and programmes of government, its agencies and parastatals, civil society and the private sector (James et al., 2006). The “Gender Policy”
encourages equal access of both males and females to goods and services. The National Gender and Race Equity Policy for Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) addresses SET for women which will also benefit women living in poverty (James et al., 2006). These policies stipulate that a legislative framework should be established for women empowerment and equal participation and representation. The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Framework (BBBEE) Act focuses on the economic empowerment of black people and women (James, et al., 2006). The study conducted by Mathur-Helm (2005) examined whether SA has successfully employed women as professional equals after implementing affirmative action policies revealed that women are still not accepted as professional equals. Until organisations are well sensitised about women empowerment and gender equity, government initiatives on gender will never be fully successful.