The Impact of Affirmative Action on Occupational Segregation by Gender in South Africa

This paper studies the impact of an affirmative action policy on occupational segregation by gender in South Africa. We estimate treatment effects of the Employment Equity Act of 1998, the Black Economic Empowerment Act in 2003 and the Codes of Good Practice in 2007 on (Black) female employment in high-skilled occupations using individual level, repeated cross-section data of 21 years. The findings based on difference-in-difference-in-difference identification strategy show that the probability of Black female employment in high-skilled occupations increased after 2003, however it decreased after 2007. Overall the effects are quite small. We offer several explanations and policy implications for these effects.