Imagine two colleagues at the same company. One believes their workplace is fair and equitable. The other, sitting at the desk next to them, experiences something very different every day.
That gap, the space between what we believe and what people actually live, is at the heart of what GeoPoll set out to measure early March 2026.
Our Africa Gender Survey 2026 is now available. It surveyed 2,420 respondents across Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt, and what came back was a picture that is at once hopeful and sobering.
The Perception Gap Is Real, and It Lives in the Workplace
Ask people at a societal level whether men and women have equal opportunities, and 65% will say yes. Ask those same people specifically about their own workplace, and that figure drops to 52%.
Thirteen percentage points. That is the distance between what we believe in the abstract and what people experience on the ground, and it is arguably the most important finding in this report.
It gets sharper when you break it down by gender. Among employed respondents, 57% of men say their workplace treats everyone equally. Only 46% of women say the same. The most commonly observed expression of this inequality? Nearly half of respondents noted that women are concentrated in junior roles while men dominate senior leadership.
These are not perceptions of a faraway problem. They are descriptions of where people spend most of their waking hours.
Nearly Half of Respondents Have Experienced Sexual Harassment
47% of respondents across the four markets reported having personally experienced some form of sexual harassment.
That number on its own should give us pause. But the gender breakdown is where it becomes impossible to look away: nearly 6 in 10 women, 59%, reported personal experience of sexual harassment, compared to 35% of men. And the most frequently cited location was not a dark alley or a public space. It was the workplace, at 51%.
The survey also found that harassment in educational settings was reported by 32% of respondents, a figure that carries serious long-term consequences for girls’ participation and outcomes in learning.
What makes this harder to address is not awareness. It is action. Research on African media organisations, cited in the report, found that while one in two women experienced workplace sexual harassment, only 30% of cases were ever formally reported. Fear of retaliation and a lack of confidence that organisations would respond meaningfully were the primary reasons.
81% of People Believe Women Should Inherit Equally. So Why Doesn’t It Happen?
The answer, according to 62% of respondents, is cultural and traditional beliefs.
This is one of the most striking tensions in the entire report. There is near-universal normative agreement that women should have equal property inheritance rights, 81% affirming it across the full sample. Yet the primary barrier is not law. It is not policy. It is deeply ingrained cultural practice that continues to override formal rights in communities across Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt.
Religious interpretations were cited by 10% of respondents, while 12% pointed to the perception that women are not permanent family members, a view that leaves widows particularly vulnerable. The gap between what people say they believe and what they are willing to enforce in their own families and communities is one of the hardest problems in gender equality work, and this survey makes it visible.
75% Would Vote for a Female President. But None of These Four Countries Has Had One.
That contrast says a great deal.
Across all four markets, 75% of respondents said they were likely or very likely to vote for a female presidential candidate. Only 15% said they were unlikely to do so. Public attitudes, it seems, have moved ahead of political structures.
None of the four countries surveyed, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, or Egypt, has had a female president or head of government. Yet voters say they are ready. That points clearly to structural and institutional barriers as the real obstacle, not public resistance.
The data also shows that support for improving access to justice is the top priority action respondents want from governments, selected by 79% of the sample. Expanding education and training came second at 66%, and increasing women’s leadership third at 58%.
Download the Full Report
The findings above are a starting point. The full GeoPoll Africa Gender Survey 2026 covers:
Country-level breakdowns for Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt
Gender-disaggregated data across every key topic
Awareness, exposure, and witness rates across nine types of gender-based violence
Household financial decision-making and economic empowerment
AI usage patterns and attitudes by gender
Conclusions and actionable recommendations for governments, organisations, and advocates
The data exists to inform decisions. We hope it does.
Contact Us
For more information about this project, get clarifications on any section in the data, or to learn more about our capabilities, please feel free to contact GeoPoll.
