Country Higher Education Profile

Regarding gender equity, higher education in South Africa is somewhat anomalous by international comparisons. Absolute gender parity in overall enrollments was reached by 1997. By 1999, women students were in the majority. At universities, women were already the majority in 1995. While still in the minority at technikons, there has been a very rapid increase in female enrollment, more than doubling from 42,000 to 86,000 from 1993-99. This signals a strong entry into vocational fields by women. However, these overall figures hide the fact that women remain underrepresented in certain fields, such a science and technology, and at the higher qualification levels, particularly at the master's and doctoral levels. Within some fields, such as business and commerce, women tend to be concentrated in "lower" programs such as public administration, rather than the "higher" ones such as business management. Conversely, women students tend to be concentrated in the traditional fields associated with females, such as teaching, social work, and the "lower" health and law programs, as well as at the lower certificate and diploma qualifications levels in all fields.