<strong>By: Lightstone</strong><h2><strong>Women hold their own business, property and automotive industries</strong></h2>On the 9^th August 1956, 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to petition against the pass laws being extended to women, which we celebrate as Women’s Day. Today, not only do we commemorate this significant day, but focus an entire month on empowering women – in business, in the home, in socio-economic circumstances, in government and constitutionally. “One of the most noteworthy liberation movements that celebrates female empowerment, however, is that women can own assets – independently,” says Esteani Marx, from <a href="http://www.lightstone.co.za/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.lightstone.co.za/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1566283680940000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFo_h_TyrAgUnS1jRPW54cJG525Ng">Lightstone</a> – leading providers of trusted and comprehensive data and analytics. “And we can see this in the numbers!”Since 1994, South African Parliament has proved a great example of how the rights of women have been prioritised by the simple increase in female representation in the National Assembly from 2,7% in 1994 to a celebrated 43% post the May 2014 elections*. “The knock-on effect of these transformation efforts has extended beyond government as to date, we see a whopping 46% of women holding Director positions in locally based companies,” says Marx. “Notably, a large portion of these senior positions are held within established businesses at an average age of 44 years old, plus the numbers for start-up businesses continue to grow, which is really inspiring.”<h3><strong>Women in Property</strong></h3>Looking specifically at property - if we look at overall sales since 2014, single females dominate the property sales in both 2017 and 2018 compared to single men and even married couples. “The average price they’re buying their homes for is just shy of R800,000 – highest that it’s ever been in the last 5 years,” says Marx.<img class="size-large wp-image-139562 aligncenter" src="https://www.cover.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/image007-600x317.png" alt="" width="600" height="317" /><strong>Figure </strong><strong>1</strong><strong>: Buyer type vs average purchase price</strong>Another positive finding from the data is the slight average increase in properties owned by single females within the R1,5 million and up price bracket – especially in a depressed economic environment, plus the growth in single females buying property in the Eastern Cape is encouraging.<img class="size-large wp-image-139563 aligncenter" src="https://www.cover.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/image008-2-600x325.png" alt="" width="600" height="325" /><strong>Figure </strong><strong>2</strong><strong>: Volume vs prices of properties since 2014</strong><img class="size-large wp-image-139564 aligncenter" src="https://www.cover.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/image009-3-600x273.png" alt="" width="600" height="273" /><strong>Figure </strong><strong>3</strong><strong>: Sales volume vs average sales prices in the Eastern Cape</strong><strong>Women Drivers…</strong>… are equal to their male counterparts. According to a study that looked at the number of new cars purchased across all motoring brands in South Africa and the share of volume between men and women, the split is an equal 50/50. “The data shows that brands like Fiat, Honda and Mazda tend to be more popular amongst female buyers, whilst brands like Audi, Peugeot and Ford are split directly down the middle,” observes Marx. Among the most popular vehicle types targeted by the female consumer are the Volkswagen Polo Vivo, the Ford EcoSport and the Mazda CX-3. Interestingly, the brands which have enjoyed the biggest growth in share amongst female buyers include Alfa Romeo (8% in 2018 to 20% in 2019), Jeep (35% to 44%) and Subaru (26% to 34%).Even in a negative economic environment, the numbers specifically referencing women are on the increase. The government’s transformation efforts have clearly been successful in helping women to become equal contributors to South Africa’s economy and although we still have the final stretch to go, the gap gets smaller year on year. “It’s clear from the statistics that women have become equal contributors to not only business, the property and automotive industries as we’ve outlined above, but across other business sectors too,” concludes Marx.