With International Women’s Day recognised on 8 March, it is an opportune time to consider women, their role in the workplace and society, and why such a commemoration is important.

 

Monday, 8 March, is officially recognised as International Women’s Day. With women being the bedrock of so many societies – as primary caregivers, single parents, sole income earners in so many families – especially here in the Caribbean, I am frequently prompted to ask myself, ‘Why is such a commemoration even necessary?’.  And of course, the most compelling answer is that although women do so much with so little, and usually under very severe circumstances, their efforts and sacrifices are overlooked, and in many instances, they are subjected to many injustices in our still male-dominated world.

Gender equality features highly among the 2030 targets for sustainable development, as Goal 5: achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Six of the nine targets are listed below:

End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere

Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation

Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate

Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life

Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women

Adopt and strengthen sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels

(Source:  United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs)

Across Caribbean countries, and more specifically legislatively, there is gender equality. Women can own property; child, early and forced marriage along with female genital mutilation are not condoned; and matters related to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights are addressed – to some degree. However, there are still societal attitudes and mores to which Caribbean girls and women are still subject that emphasise the need for our countries to not rest on their laurels, pat themselves on the back that they are not as bad as ‘other countries’, and more fully recognise the contribution women make to our societies.

 

COVID-19 and the slip into poverty

For 2021, the theme for International Women’s Day is “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. In so many of our households, where women are primary caregivers, single parents, sole income earners, and quite frequently all three, COVID-19 has been devastating. In an recent interview on CNN with Melinda Gates, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, she highlighted a United Nations statistic that an estimated 47 million women worldwide have been driven out of the workforce due to COVID-19.

Two reasons were identified. First, women tend to be the primary (and unpaid) caregivers in their families, and with children being out of schools due to the pandemic, women have been the ones with childcare and tutoring responsibilities. Second, women, perhaps more than men, tend to work in some of the more economically fragile sectors, such as tourism and hospitality, as well as in some of the more informal jobs, which would include domestic helpers and office attendants, that since about March 2020 have adversely affected by the pandemic. Moreover, and with these women no longer in the workforce, they, and their families, have fallen into poverty.

 

Unfortunately, there might not be any recent or comprehensive study on the role and impact of women in Caribbean economies or Caribbean societies. Nevertheless, it is likely that the global trends and findings also exist the region. However, and unlike developed countries, Caribbean countries have not implemented policies to recognise the contribution women make to their economies, as unpaid caregivers and as sole income earners, in particular, who are lifting themselves and their children out of poverty, and for whom there tends to be no social safety net if they are unable to work.

 

The obligations placed on women versus men

For women in more robust industries, including the tech field, the gender equality challenges may be more along the lines of leadership and the true empowerment of women. It is interesting to note that although female enrolment in high schools and tertiary institutions tends to exceed males in most disciplines, and women are in greater numbers in lower level positions in many organisations, they tend not to be as represented in senior leadership and executive roles.

Having said this, women, regardless of their position, tend to have primary caregiving responsibilities, and frequently are expected to sacrifice their professional aspirations for the sake of their families, including the ambition of their husbands and partners. That obligation – to step back from their careers for their families – is not one that our societies expect men to consider. As a result, although there might be more women in lower level positions, they cannot move up the ranks (into senor positions), because they are being hamstrung by familial roles and responsibilities that they are still expected to fulfil.

With their ability to earn, and even their own self-determination constrained through the obligations placed solely at the feet of women, to varying degrees, women can be at a disadvantage in their home lives, along with being financially dependent on others. Once all of these considerations crossed my mind, effectively answering the question, ‘Why is such a commemoration of International Women’s Day even necessary?’, I had to admit that although a lot of progress has been made over the years, there is still a lot of ground to cover.

 

 

Image credit: Standsome (Pixabay)