MULTI-PRONGED APPROACH TO SPEED UP WOMEN'S ACCESS TO ECONOMIC DECISION-MAKING STRESSED IN STATUS OF WOMEN COMMISSION
Press Release
WOM/962
MULTI-PRONGED APPROACH TO SPEED UP WOMEN'S ACCESS TO ECONOMIC DECISION-MAKING STRESSED IN STATUS OF WOMEN COMMISSION
19970312 There should be a concerted, systematic, and multi-pronged approach to speed up women's access to economic decision-making, the Commission on the Status of Women was told this afternoon as it heard a panel discussion on the theme of "women and the economy".Mihye Roh, Vice-President of the Korean Women's Development Institute of the Republic of Korea, said anti-discrimination laws, changes in corporate practices and introduction of teaching aids for gender equality would go a long way in promoting such access.
Today's panel was part of a series of discussions that the Commission is holding on four critical areas of concern of the Platform for Action adopted by the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing. Those areas include: education and training of women; women and the economy; women in power and decision-making; and women and the environment.
Mamounata Cisse, General Secretary of the Organisation nationale des syndicats libres (ONSL) of Burkina Faso, stressed that if the situation of women did not improve in the work market, they would not be represented in decision-making bodies. However, it should be recognized that "when you are absent from the starting line it is difficult to be present at the end", she said.
Lin Lean Lim, of the Labour Market Policies Branch of the International Labour Organization (ILO), said there were a number of strategies for breaking through the "glass ceiling", such as equal access to education for women and changes in the organizational structures of corporations. There was no objective reason for women not to rise to the very top as men did, she said.
Also participating in the panel discussion were: Nina A. Kaupova, Director of the Republican Research Centre of Maternal and Child Health Care of Kazakstan; and Donna Dillon Manning, Vice-President, Corporate Board Placement of Catalyst, of the United States.
In a question-and-answer session which followed the presentation by the panellists, representatives of member States recognized that in many countries
legislative tools to mandate equality had already been exhausted. Concern was also expressed at the existence of a "glass ceiling" which prevented women's rise to the highest levels.
Responding to their concerns, panellists spoke of the need to offer visible assignments to women and of the need to hold managers accountable for women's advancement. The importance of establishing strong mentoring programmes was also noted.
Statements were also made by the representatives of the European Women's Lobby, African Women's NGO Caucus, International Women's Court Network, International Federation of University Women,and the International Council of Women.
The Commission will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 13 March, to hold a dialogue on "women in power and decision-making".
Commission Work Programme
The Commission on the Status of Women met this afternoon to hear a panel discussion on the theme of "women and the economy". That theme is one of the four critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action that the Commission will focus on during its current session. The other three areas of concern include: women and the environment; education and training of women; and women in power and decision-making.
Panel Discussion
EVA HILDRUM (Norway), Vice-Chairperson of the Commission and moderator of the discussion, introduced the panellists.
NINA KAUPOVA, Director of the Republican Research Centre of Maternal and Child Health Care, Chairman of the Republican Council of Women, Family, and Demographic Policy Problems under the President of the Republic of Kazakstan, said that the employment of women in her country was higher than in other Asian countries. The majority of women were concentrated in the education and the health care systems, and almost half of the unemployed women in Kazakstan live in rural areas.
The Government was responsible for the majority of job placement assistance, she said. Business courses for unemployed women had been conducted based on the principles of entrepreneurship. A role for women in small business had been encouraged, especially in the service industry. That emphasis on entrepreneurship was one of the best ways for women to realize their potential, as it help them to develop a sense of dignity and self- reliance. There needed to be an efficient system of government support for the continued development of entrepreneurship to ensure its survival.
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MIHYE ROH, Vice-President of the Korean Women's Development Institute of South Korea, of the Republic of Korea, said working women had been playing a significant role in her country's rapid economic growth since 1962. It was undeniable, however, that women workers had been discriminated against. Being aware of the problem, government, female academics and women's organizations had been pooling their efforts to eliminate various discriminatory employment practices in the labour market. As a result of their efforts, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act had been established in 1987 and had come into force in 1988. The act had made it illegal to discriminate against women in recruitment, placement, pay, promotion and dismissal, but the gender gap and segregation had continued to persist in the labour market.
There should be a concerted, systematic, and multi-pronged approach in order to speed up promotion of women's access to economic decision-making, she said. Anti-discrimination laws, changes in corporate practices, introduction of teaching aids for gender equality, consciousness raising of gender inequality, education and training of women, socialization of household duties and monitoring government policies and employment practices of all firms were necessary measures for the promotion of women's access to economic decision- making. However, those measures alone would not be enough to rectify the severe gender inequality that existed in most developing countries. Under conditions in which a sexual division existed very clearly in society, adoption of a gender neutral policy, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, was not enough to redress gender-discrimination in the labour market.
On the contrary, equal opportunity under extreme unequal conditions might prolong the existing inequality between sexes, she said. Therefore, substantial progress could be made only through systematic efforts to coordinate and put into practice all the legal, social, economic measures and policy tools together. She added that her Government had adopted a quota system for female civil servants a month after the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women.
DONNA DILLON MANNING, Vice-President, Corporate Board Placement, Catalyst, of the United States, said Catalyst was a non-profit women's research and business advisory organization that measured what was valued and valued what it measured. Women's voices were rarely heard in the boardrooms and executive offices of corporations, she noted. Women earned half the bachelor's degrees granted in the United States colleges today, which compared to women being granted only a third in the 1950s. But despite education and access to the workplace, the bridge between qualification and success was noticeably absent. Women continued to enter workplaces designed for another time, for another gender.
Corporate management was largely uninformed about the environment for women within their own companies and did not understand the nature or size of the barriers that women face, she said. Referring to a recent report, she
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said gender determined career experience. Lack of general management experience was cited as the greatest impediment to women's advancement according to male executives. Women executives, however, cited male stereotyping and preconceptions and exclusion from informal networks as significant areas impeding advancement. That gap in perception was central to the issue of women's advancement, she stressed.
Corporations needed to offer visible assignments to women, stress succession planning, establish strong mentoring programmes and hold managers accountable for women's advancement, she continued. Those strategies could and did advance women. Demonstrated top-down support, however, was critical to the effectiveness of any of those strategies. Women could still do more to ensure their own advancement by taking the initiative to shape their careers. They needed to identify and voice their own expectations from the workplace so that they would no longer feel the need to adjust their work styles to fit the expectations of male managers. Women beget women, even before "Dolly" was cloned, she said.
MAMOUNATA CISSE, General Secretary of the Organisation nationale des syndicats libres (ONSL), of Burkina Faso, said the Beijing Platform for Action had clearly stated that the absence of women in decision-making put them in a secondary position. An African saying aptly expressed women's situation vis-à-vis decision-making: "You can't do someone's hair when they are not there." Trade unions could play an important role in ensuring women's presence at all decision-making levels. The current wave of economic globalization, which had challenged the unions, could lead to greater exploitation of women. To that end, there should be lobbying at the level of the ILO.
People needed to be informed and consumers needed to be made aware of their responsibility to working men and women, she said. The media had a crucial role to play in that. It had to be kept in mind that if the situation of women did not improve in the work market, they would not be represented in decision-making bodies. Moreover, more opportunities for self-employment and organization of women in the informal sectors were also important in that regard. She stressed that the ILO should work closely with governments to counter discriminatory practices of employers. Collaboration between non- governmental organizations and unions was also required. Moreover, the importance of networking and of establishing priorities could not be minimized. Organization and coordination was paramount. Also, the United Nations should encourage Member States to send female candidates to its agencies and bodies. In each country, skilled female candidates were available to fill those posts. In addition, there was a need for more transparency. In the end, women had to understand that "you have to fight for power, it is not given to you on a platter". However, it had to be recognized that "when you are absent from the starting line it is difficult to be present at the end".
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LIN LEAN LIM, Labour Market Policies Branch, ILO, said the expression "glass ceiling", coined to describe the invisible barriers that block women from top executive jobs, illustrated that there was no objective reason for women not to rise to the very top as men did. One of the main sources of discrimination was gender stereotyping. Those gender biases led to biased recruiting, training and promotions. Although most countries had enacted equal opportunity or non-discrimination legislation in the last decade or two, enforcement mechanisms had been weak.
She said a number of strategies had been identified for breaking through the glass ceiling, including equal access to education, changes in organizational structures, a conscious strategy to career track women upwards, raising of awareness by employers' organizations, and monitoring by trade unions. Targets should be set for achieving at least 30 per cent of female representation in senior management positions.
As large corporations scaled down, she said, women in smaller firms were playing an increasingly important role as sources of innovation, employment and economic growth. In the United States, women already own one third of all the country's businesses and were opening new companies at twice the rate of the general population. Increasingly, the "feminine way of doing business" was the paradigm for the future. Women-owned companies were likely to employ other women and to be more family-friendly.
Question-and-Answer Session
In a question-and-answer session following the panel discussion, representatives of member States emphasized that it was crucial that a critical mass of women in all levels of economic decision-making was secured. They recognized that in very many countries the legislative tools had already been exhausted. The representative of Finland said in her country, where women had benefited more from higher education, they were still not represented at the highest levels. Concern was expressed at the existence of a "glass ceiling", which prevented women's rise to the highest levels.
Participants also noted that the Commission should include data on women managers in its reports. There was some concern that in the area of equality of women, awareness rarely translated into action. It was also said that the representation of women in government delegations was important. The question of validity of quotas was also discussed.
Responding to comments made by representatives of member States, Ms. KAUPOVA said she did not favour promotion through arbitrary quotas. Women should be promoted based upon their abilities. Regarding the situation of women working at home, she said for the last five years the Government of Kazakstan had provided child care so that mothers would not be prevented from working.
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Ms. ROH said that for the past 1O years women's grass-roots organizations in the Republic of Korea had struggled against institutionalized gender discrimination in the labour market. They had lobbied against discriminatory salary systems and retirement provisions which discriminated them. She stressed that it was important to recognize the contributions of working women to her country's economy.
Ms. MANNING said that her company was trying not only to address the needs of women high up in the organization, but to help those at the entry level. Banks and other institutions had discovered that women entrepreneurs were good business. Many credit institutions had sections dedicated specifically to businesses owned by women. Women-owned businesses in the United States had formed many organizations such as the National Association of Women Business owners.
She emphasized that telecommuting, job sharing and other flexible work arrangements could provide employers with the labour they need and allow workers to take care of their family obligations.
Ms. CISSE underlined the need for women to be represented on the boards of chambers of commerce around the world. She hoped that powerful countries that were members of the Economic and Social Council, the Security Council, the board of the World Bank and other bodies, would use their influence to guarantee that women played a prominent role. She also said that women in the informal sector should be organized so that they could benefit from the fruits of their labour.
Ms. LIM said that governments should put into place enforcement mechanisms which would ensure that practices were in line with legislation because mere legislative compliance with ILO conventions was not enough. Many women had started micro-enterprises as a simple means of survival. Efforts should be undertaken to increase those enterprises viability as small to medium-sized corporations.
Other Statements
A representative of the European Women's Lobby said the first area of concern was that of equal pay. Despite an increase in women's presence in the work arena, women were paid less and wage differences remained high. She stressed that there were innovative ways of addressing that problem. Legal redress was one way out and in that the burden of proof must be put on employers. The fact that women constituted the atypical work force had led to feminization of poverty. It was notable that older women constituted 70 per cent of the older poor in Europe. Barriers to building up enterprise were immense for women. She stressed the need for access to training and technology so that women did not become the secretaries of the future information society.
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A representative of the African Women's NGO Caucus said labour laws should be established to monitor the practices of multinationals. Labour unions should be involved in such monitoring. She stressed that the paid and unpaid work of women must be measured and valued. The structural adjustment programmes had infringed on the rights of women and children, she said, and added that their input must be taken into account in future policies. Also, the impact of moving industries from the North to the South must be studied. Additionally, grass-roots non-governmental organizations should be involved in the empowerment of women.
A representative of the International Women's Court Network said unwaged work should be measured. The value of work in the household, agriculture and volunteer work should be measured and used to form social policy. The North should provide the technological resources to the South to enable it to do that. Work should be redefined to recognize the work done by unwaged workers. She also stressed the need for universal access to safe water. Moreover, the right to organize should be inalienable in free trade zones everywhere. Also, an impact assessment of structural adjustment was required. She called for pay equity and added that low wage work reinforced unwaged work.
A representative of the International Federation of University Women said while home workers were a necessity, countries needed to improve their practices with regard to them. Access to monetary resources and credit should be provided to them. There was also a need to generate small businesses geared to removing poverty. Also, the protection of labour laws should be extended to domestic employees and child care workers, as well as migrants. She also emphasized the need for developing feasibility studies and monitoring occupational standards. Moreover, non-governmental organizations should monitor abuses of working conditions.
A representative of the International Council of Women said governments in developing countries should take into account all the consequences of inviting in foreign investment. That often had negative repercussions on women. The impact of structural adjustment on women should be monitored. She called on all governments to ratify the ILO conventions and to ratify and implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Also, non-governmental organizations could be active in identifying corporations that discriminated against women. Conversely, the products of socially responsible businesses should be promoted.
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