SA women still 'less equal' than men - study

South African women still do not enjoy equality with men, though the situation is slowly improving, a study reported.

The study, compiled by Mastercard, found that the overall index score for the socioeconomic equality of women in 2012 was 74.7, a small improvement from the 74.4 reported in 2011.

"While there are still inequalities between men and women it is encouraging to see that the overall index score has improved year-on-year since 2010, signifying increasing socioeconomic equality between men and women," Mastercard Worldwide president Philip Panaino said in a statement.

The scores are based on a 100-point scale, with a figure closer to 100 indicating more gender parity to men.

Workplace participation of women in the formal economy was also lower than that of men. Only about three-quarters of women were involved in the formal economy when compared to men.

But more women than men were able to find a way to earn an income through casual work, self-employment or business.

The study found that the number of women leaders was far behind than that of men with only 56 women in decision-making positions in government or companies for every 100 men.

While women made up 52% of the country's population, they held only 3.6% of CEO positions, 5.5% of chairmanships, and made up just 21.4% of executives.

The study found that more South African women than men were enrolled in a tertiary organisations. In the case of the University of SA, about 60% of the student body were women.