?Continuing criminality against women and discriminatory employment practices are two of the major highlights, low points really, of this year's International Women's Day observances.
In the case of participation in the labour force and the issues involved, a report of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on "Women in the Labour Markets" notes an increase in female participation internationally, from 50.2 per cent to 51.7 per cent, and this compares to male participation declining from 82 to 77 per cent, thus closing slightly the gap between males and females who are in jobs. And as the ILO has found, the increase in employment among females in Latin America and the Caribbean region is one of the highest in the world. With increased employment, women's share of salaries increased from 43 to 48 per cent. Of course that does not mean that women are getting into higher paid jobs compared to their male counterparts. "We still find many more women than men taking up low-pay and precarious work, either because this is the only type of job made available to them or because they need to find something that allows them to balance work and family responsibilities," says ILO's Sara Elder. The ILO study finds the reasons for what it calls the "lingering imbalance" in employment between male and female to centre on the fact that nearly 50 per cent of women remain economically inactive, work is harder to find for women as opposed to men, and the salary levels remain far lower for women than men.
We do not know what the figures are for men and women in the world of work in T&T and the Caribbean, but judging from the performance of females in the education system compared to males over the last couple decades, it is almost certain that women are as qualified, trained and competent, perhaps even more so than their husbands, male partners, fathers, brothers, uncles and nephews. There is therefore no ground for handing the jobs to males almost as an automatic reaction. In this country as in many other Caribbean countries, what is clearly needed is a gender policy that factors gender into planning and implementation. Equality between males and females will not happen as a matter of coincidence, but only as it is planned for and allowed to grow. This Government has dawdled too long with a draft document, overly and politically concerned as to what this or that pressure and population group would like or not like about elements of a gender policy. Decision-making will always attract consequences; the Government has to consult widely and now initiate a gender policy which it could adapt as the issues of equality between the genders are teased out. Inaction is not an acceptable option.
On the issue of crime against women, there has to be serious and deep transformation of the culture starting with the boys of today. And this is so as it is often found that it is too late to punish males who violate their women and daughters and step-daughters sexually and violently. Such women are found dead or scarred for life by the acts committed against them by trusted males. Healthy interaction between girls and boys at a young age and the inculcation of a sense of how they are to act towards their female counterparts are two absolutely important understandings that must take place if men and women are to grow together in respect and love for each other.
