Household equality is a topic most South Africans say they believe in. But new consumer insights from YouGov Profiles shows a persistent gap between what we say and what actually happens at the till. Across every generation surveyed, women remain significantly more likely than men to be the sole grocery shopper in their household, not simply a contributor to the task.
For market researchers and marketers alike, this is not just an interesting cultural observation. It is a data-backed reminder that “the household decision-maker” is still, disproportionately, a woman, and that assumption should shape everything from media planning to product messaging.
The Headline Number: Two-Thirds of SA Households Rely on One Shopper
Across all respondents, 66% say they are the sole grocery shopper in their household, 32% share the responsibility, and only 2% say they carry no responsibility at all. Split by gender, the picture sharpens considerably: 72% of women say they are the sole grocery shopper, compared with 60% of men. Men are also far more likely to describe the task as shared, with 37% saying they share responsibility, versus 27% of women.
Put simply, women are not just doing “more” of the shopping. Nearly three in four are doing all of it, alone.
The Gender Gap Widens With Age
Break the data down by generation and gender together, and a clear pattern emerges: the youngest adults look the most balanced, and the gap grows wider the older the generation gets. Among Gen Z, 69% of women are sole shoppers versus 61% of men, a relatively small eight-point gap. Among Millennials, the gap widens to eleven points, with 75% of women doing the shopping alone compared with 64% of men. Among Gen X, the gap reaches its widest reliable point in the dataset, at 18 points, with 77% of women as sole shoppers against just 59% of men. Among Baby Boomers, 77% of women remain sole shoppers, while just 26% of Boomer men say the same, though this Boomer sample is small (just 16 women and 28 men) and should be treated as indicative rather than precise.
Interestingly, Boomer men are the one group who buck the trend entirely: 71% say they share grocery duties, and just 26% say they are the sole shopper. But even here, the women in their generation are still doing the bulk of the work solo, with 77% remaining sole shoppers.
Marriage Deepens the Divide
Marital status tells a similar story. Among married women, 83% say they are the sole grocery shopper, compared with 69% of married men. But the gap persists even among cohabiting couples: 72% of women living with a partner outside marriage are sole shoppers, versus just 43% of men in the same living situation.
The Paradox: Strong Belief in Equality, Weaker Practice
Here is where the story gets genuinely interesting for anyone building a narrative around modern South African households. When asked whether men and women should have equal responsibility for household life, agreement is high across the board: 76% of all respondents agree overall. Women are, if anything, more convinced of this principle than men: 77% of women agree, compared with 75% of men.
In other words, South African women are not just carrying more of the domestic load. They are doing so while holding a stronger stated belief that it should not work this way. That tension between belief and lived reality is a powerful, data-backed insight for any brand or publication speaking to South African households.
Grocery Shopping Is Not the Only Divide
The imbalance flips, however, when the task shifts to a more traditionally ‘male’ domain. On car buying, men are considerably more likely to hold sole responsibility, at 68%, than women, at 56%, while women are more likely to share this responsibility, at 30% versus 22% of men. Rather than a simple low-value/high-value split, the pattern points to a more traditional division of household roles: grocery shopping still reads as a female domain, car buying as a male one. It is also worth noting that ‘responsibility’ for a task is not the same as sole decision-making power: a woman who does the weekly shop may still have her household’s input on what goes in the trolley, just as a man who takes the lead on buying the car is not necessarily making that call alone.
Online Shopping: A Relief Valve for the Sole Shopper
There is a silver lining. Among women aged 25 and older, almost 9 in 10 (86%) agree that online shopping makes life easier, almost identical to the general population at 85%. Sole grocery shoppers specifically are the most enthusiastic about this convenience: 67% definitely agree that online shopping makes their life easier, compared with just 43% among people who say they carry no grocery responsibility at all. For a segment doing the most work, digital convenience appears to be doing real, measurable good.
What This Means for Brands and Researchers
For anyone working in FMCG, retail or grocery-adjacent marketing, the takeaway is direct: the “primary shopper” persona is still overwhelmingly female, and that pattern strengthens rather than weakens with age. Campaigns aimed at Gen X and Boomer households in particular should recognise that women in these age groups are shouldering grocery duties almost entirely on their own. At the same time, younger households show early signs of more balanced sharing, a trend worth tracking as Gen Z ages into primary household roles of their own. There is also a clear opening for product and service innovation here: as the earlier data shows, sole shoppers are already the most enthusiastic adopters of online grocery convenience, so tools that simplify list-building, reordering and decision-making stand to ease a burden that, for now, is not being shared.
Methodology
The data referenced in this article is sourced from YouGov Profiles, South Africa.
Dataset: 2026-05-31
Population: The nationally representative sample comprised South African adults aged 18 and over, with unweighted bases ranging from approximately 943 to 6,332 respondents depending on the question, filtered by gender, generation and marital status as noted throughout.
