South Africans Think Things Would Be Better if Women Were in Charge – Poll

The world would be better if women held more positions of responsibility, South Africans say.

This is according to a poll conducted by Ipsos, a global market research company, which conducted a survey on attitudes to gender equality in 29 countries, released to coincide with International Women’s Day, which was earlier this month.

One of the statements that was put to people was: “Things would work better if more women held positions with responsibilities in government and companies.” They could agree or disagree with the statement.

Seventy-one percent of South Africans agreed with the statement, against a global average of 60%. Thais were the nationality that most agreed with the statement, with 76% of people in that country saying things would be better if women had more positions in companies and the government.

South Koreans were the most sceptical, with only 47% of people in that country saying they thought things would be better if there were more women in positions of power.

When broken down by gender, 62% of South African men thought things would be better if more women were in positions of power, against 79% of women.

Despite this, less than half of South Africans said they defined themselves as “feminists”. Forty-nine percent of South Africans said they defined themselves with that label, with 48% of South African men saying they were feminists, and 52% of women.

This was higher than the global average, with 39% of those surveyed saying they defined themselves as feminists.

The country with the highest proportion of self-identified feminists was India, where 68% of people said they defined themselves with that label. In Japan only 14% of people said they were feminists, the lowest of all countries surveyed.

The difference between the proportion of people in South Africa who think things would be better if there were more women in power and the proportion of self-identified “feminists” likely reflect the fact that a term like “feminist” can carry different connotations for different people.