Urban-Rural Divide Deepens Inequality for African Women, Afrobarometer Survey Shows

Nairobi: A recent Afrobarometer survey highlights the widening urban-rural divide in terms of inequality affecting women across Africa. The survey, which involved 50,961 interviews conducted across 38 African countries during 2024 and 2025, reveals significant disparities in education, employment, asset ownership, and financial decision-making between men and women, as well as between urban and rural women. According to African Press Organization, the report shows that women are less likely than men to achieve secondary or post-secondary education and obtain paid employment. Additionally, women are less likely to own essential assets such as vehicles, bank accounts, mobile phones, and computers. The survey further indicates that women are less likely to make their own financial decisions. The data reveals that rural women face even greater challenges compared to their urban counterparts. The gaps in access to digital and financial resources are particularly pronounced, with rural women trailing urban women significantly. Interestingly, rural women report higher levels of participation in political activities, such as voting and political party affiliation, compared to urban women, suggesting potential opportunities for enhancing their representation and voice in rural communities. Key findings of the study include educational attainment, where only 54% of women have secondary or post-secondary education compared to 62% of men. Rural women are more than twice as likely as urban women to lack formal education, and only about half as likely to hold secondary or post-secondary qualifications. In terms of employment, only 25% of working-age women have paid employment compared to 39% of men, with rural women lagging significantly behind urban women. The survey also highlights disparities in asset ownership, with women being less likely than men to own vehicles, bank accounts, mobile-money accounts, and digital tools. The divide between urban and rural women is often more pronounced, particularly in areas like phone ownership, where rural women are at a 17-percentage-point disadvantage. In terms of financial decision-making, women are less likely than men to make decisions about their financial resources, with a notable portion of women indicating that their spouses are the primary decision-makers. Rural women have even weaker voices in financial decision-making compared to their urban counterparts. While women generally participate less in political activities than men, rural women outpace urban women in voting and political party affiliation, presenting opportunities to bolster their representation in rural areas. Afrobarometer is a pan-African, nonpartisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. The survey data is gathered through face-to-face interviews conducted by national partners, ensuring representative samples and accurate reflections of the continent's diverse realities.