Union formation and residential living arrangements among Black/African women of reproductive age in South Africa

Mugwendere, Tatenda

Union formation and residential living arrangements among Black/African women of reproductive age in South Africa

Thesis / Dissertation

2024

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Centre for Actuarial Research (CARE)

Faculty

Faculty of Commerce

Abstract

This thesis examines changes in patterns of union formation and household living arrangements amongst Black/African females of reproductive age in South Africa over the period 1970-2019 and 1996-2019 respectively. Cross-sectional data, derived from multiple census enquiries, Community Surveys (CS), General Household Surveys (GHS), and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), as well as longitudinal data, from the National Income and Dynamics Study (NIDS), are used in this endeavour. The detailed analysis of union formation patterns using the Age-Period-Cohort model showed that the proportion of currently married Black/African women declined significantly from 48 per cent in 1970 to approximately 18 per cent in 2019. Whilst our results support previous research that a rise in singlehood, particularly never married women, accounts for this pattern, our findings also reveal that the role played by cohabitation has been largely understated. The analysis shows that over the period 1970-2019, cohabitation has supplanted marriage as the choice of partnership among young Black/African women aged 25-29 years. Furthermore, the results show that the cohabitation – marriage nexus is no longer as strong as previously observed. New evidence presented in this thesis show that cohabiters are a heterogeneous group. Whilst findings from longitudinal data show that during the period 2008 and 2017 cohabitation episodes were generally short-lived (more likely to transition to singlehood than marriage), there is also evidence of long-term same partner cohabitation relationships. Our findings on union formation are largely consistent with predictions of the Second Demographic Transition theory. However, this transition, in the context of Black/African women in South Africa, is not driven by a rise in secularism and individualism as observed in north-western Europe, but is closely tied to a pattern of economic disadvantage. Although a large literature exists on changing household living arrangement patterns in South Africa, most of these studies assess trends using a static household perspective and fail to capture adequately the influence of individual life course factors such as age. Few studies, mostly focusing on children and the elderly, have attempted to unpack how these changes are manifesting over the individual life course. This thesis, for the first time, investigates the patterns of living arrangements from the perspective of Black/African women of reproductive age under the prevailing context of increasing non-marital fertility, breakdown in union formation, and limited access to the labour market. The thesis contributes not only to our understanding of who Black/African women live with at a particular point in time, but also the stability, durability, and evolution of those living arrangements over time. Households are known to diversify, decompose and re-compose over the life course, describing these patterns from an individual perspective has implications for our understanding of residential choices, whether forced or not, as well as housing needs. Due to data limitations, the analysis on household living arrangements presented in this thesis focuses primarily on the period 1996-2019. Whilst the analysis of age and cohort patterns of living arrangements reveals a plethora of living arrangements available to Black/African women during this period, extended family household structures (in particular three-generational linear arrangements) continue to be the most dominant. The findings also highlight that the emergence of seemingly new household living arrangements does not necessarily translate to a changing household developmental paradigm. This vital point has been missed by most household studies based on cross-sectional data. This thesis reveals that, between 2008 and 2017, the extended family household system proved to be adaptable and has evolved to include phases of single person, single parent, and nuclear household living arrangements. The continued economic precarity of Black/African women in the post-apartheid era, which undermines the possibility of independent residence, as well as changes in patterns of family formation have all played a significant role in the enduring stability of extended family co-residence.