When First for Women Insurance launched its inaugural Her and Now Report in 2025, it sparked a national conversation. The data exposed a profound exhaustion – 67% of South African women felt the daily pressure to “hold everything together”, while nearly half felt completely unseen by major brands and financial institutions.
It revealed a quiet revolution – women moving away from the toxic expectation of endless “superwoman” strength and demanding real peace, safety and recognition instead. Now, the next chapter of this essential research is underway, and First for Women is inviting women across the country to speak up.
The upcoming report aims to go deeper than just mapping the struggles. It is actively hunting for the “glimmers” – those unexpected spaces where South African women are successfully rewriting the rules. Her & Now report told us who South African women are and what they’re navigating. This report asks the next question: are the products, services and systems women interact with every day designed to account for the reality of their lives? And where they aren’t, what does that cost?
The insights gathered will serve as a direct blueprint, challenging formal institutions, financial providers, and brands to stop treating women as an afterthought and start designing systems that actually work for their real lives.
If you are tired of one-dimensional stereotypes and want to help shape a more honest narrative about what it means to navigate South Africa today, your voice is needed. The survey takes just a few minutes, is completely anonymous, and directly influences how corporate South Africa steps up for women.
Have your say. Take the official survey here: national survey
