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14 May, 2007May 2007
1. Costa Rica - Parliament Approves Law to Penalize Violence against Women
2. Denmark - From our readers: Marianne Bruun, 3F, writes
3. Ecuador - Women Workers’ Coordinate and Meet
4. India - Women’s Ceremony for Children of Worker Victims
5. Iraq - May Day in Basra
6. Korea - Women Workforce Expands
7. Mexico - Mexico City Legalises Abortion
8. Morocco - Women’s Network Holds Workers’ Memorial Day Cause
9. South Africa - Pushes for Constitutional Guarantees of Gender Equality
10. Resources
1. Costa Rica – Parliament Approves Law to Penalize Violence Against Women
On 12 April 2007, the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly passed pioneering legislation to penalize violence against women. The aim is to protect the rights of the victims of violence and to sanction such in all its forms – physical, psychological, sexual, property – in the context of a relationship of power or confidence. This will only be the second time in the world, after Spain, that this type of legislation has been passed.
The law implies a change in the penal code and the traditional concept of related crimes. Women should thus have better protection against violence in relations with partners. Costa Rica is now a reference point in the Americas in terms of legislation against violence against women.
2. Denmark
From our readers: Marianne Bruun, 3F, writes:
Average male earnings are higher than average female earnings in the Danish labour market. Depending on how hourly wages are calculated, the unadjusted pay differences, i.e., the percentage difference between the average earnings of men and women, is between 12-19%.
The main single explanation of the pay differences between men and women in Denmark is that women work in other professions than men, and that people working in those professions are generally paid less than people working in the typically male professions.
For years we have asked for statistical tools that would show pay inequalities in various lines of business and job categories. The Danish government has now adopted legislation requiring that major enterprises prepare gender-separated statistics.
If they prefer it, the enterprises may instead prepare reports on equal pay, provided employees agree with this. Such reports must contain information about matters that have an impact on male and female employees’ pay in the enterprise, and must also describe initiatives taken by the enterprise to avoid pay inequality.
The new legislation applies to enterprises with 35 or more full- and part-time employees and have at least ten people of each gender employed in the same job function. Enterprises that do not have any groups of at least ten men and ten women do not have to prepare gender-separated pay statistics.
In the trade union movement, we are not at all pleased with this limitation, which means that only a small proportion of our members will be covered by the new legislation. We have therefore decided to create a number of supplementary tools that can be used by union representatives in most workplaces, thus enabling them to collect data on pay themselves and to identify any pay inequality issues in their own enterprise.
Paternity leave
In connection with the recently finalised collective bargaining in Danish industry, we have achieved two very important improvements in the field of equal opportunities for men and women.
First of all, a number of weeks have been earmarked for leave for fathers. Danish legislation provides a total of 32 weeks of leave to be shared by parents (in continuation of the mother’s 14-week maternity leave). However, in most cases it is the woman that takes the entire ’shared’ leave, while men are rarely keen to take leave. One reason is that women want to have the entire leave; another is that colleagues and employers are reluctant to let men take time off to go on paternity leave.
It has now been agreed that a family is entitled to full pay in nine of the thirty-two weeks of leave, but that either parent may only take leave for six of those nine weeks. This means that at least three weeks are earmarked for leave for the father if the family wants to receive full pay for nine weeks. We hope this will make more men go on paternity leave.
Another important aspect is that we will now do something about the fact that women who take maternity leave lag behind in terms of pensions, as they do not contribute to any pension scheme while they are on leave. The new collective agreements compensate a bit for that.
Reconciliation between family and working life
We have long discussed our members’ need for a better work-life balance, so in order to find out what our members mean when they say they want a better balance between work and family life, we have carried out a questionnaire survey.
Our members, first of all, point out that they believe this particular issue should be one of the union’s focus areas. They also express a strong wish to have family policy included in our collective agreements, which it has not previously been in Denmark.
The survey also shows that stress is a common phenomenon among our members. This is particularly true of women members, not least single mothers. The distribution of work in families is still far from equal, which means that most women work full-time outside the home and also have to do the housework. That is why our focus will be, to an increasing extent, targeting labour market demands that can possibly make daily work-life easier for families with young children.
3. Ecuador – Women Workers’ Coordinate and Meet
The Eighth Meeting of the Coordination of Andean Women Workers took place on 2-3 May in Manta, Ecuador, with the proposal to fight for equal opportunities between men and women. About 20 women from trade union national centres met in Bolivia. Representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela attended the meeting of COMUANDE.
The meeting adopted a proposal to be passed on to the Andean Community of Nations that equal opportunities between men and women must become reality once and for all. COMUANDE meets once a year in regional assembly at rotating venues. It is a space for coordination and exchange to make proposals regarding trade unions, social policy, and politics in the process of Andean integration.
4. India – Women’s Ceremony for Children of Worker Victims
In the framework of Workers’ Memorial Day, 28 April, the Society for Working Life held a women’s meeting in New Delhi to organise a candle ceremony with children of worker victims. Local trade unions in Bihar state also organised a similar commemoration. SWL, the Society for Working Life, is involved in the Women, Work, and Health Initiative, and works with NGOs in Bihar to create awareness of HIV/AIDS among migrant workers.
5. Iraq – May Day in Basra
The GFIW Says Strong Unions Need Women
6. Korea – Women Workforce Expands
Women comprise more than 42% of the Korean workforce, according to a recent survey by the state-run Korean Employment Information Service. This marks a steady increase over the years.
The survey analysed the nation’s employment structure based on gender, salary, and occupational category. The female workforce increased most in the chemical industry, with a 6.5% rise. On the other hand, the number of women’s jobs decreased by 4.1% percentage points in the industrial arts and furnishing services. And fewer women took jobs in the electric and telecommunication sectors.
An earlier survey by the Korea Institute of Finance showed that women had outpaced men in the tight job market. According to the National Statistical Office, women took 154,000, or 69.4%, of about 222,000 new jobs in various high-paying professions in 2006. Those jobs included lawmakers, high-ranking government officials, lawyers, doctors, and professors.
Men claimed the remaining 68,000 new jobs. The number of lawmakers, corporate executives, and managers reached 571,000 in 2006, down 3,000 from 2005, but the number of women increased by 2,000 during the same period.
7. Mexico – Mexico City Legalizes Abortion
The Mexico City legislature passed a bill to legalize abortion during the first three months of pregnancy. This occurred on 24 April.
Feminists hailed the decision as a victory. For decades women, especially poor women, have been forced by way of backstreet abortions and questionable practices to end unwanted pregnancies. Thousands die every year due to botched abortions.
Mexico City has now become the largest entity in Latin America after Cuba and Puerto Rico where women may have abortions on demand in the first three months of pregnancy. Most other states in Mexico only allow abortion in cases of rape or danger to the woman’s health.
Opponents have condemned this measure, passed in this highly Catholic country. Court battles and clashes are bound to be launched. It may ultimately be challenged by the Supreme Court. The Pope publicly condemned the bill.
8. Morocco – Women’s Network Holds Workers’ Memorial Day Cause
The women’s network “Women and Sustainable Development” lit candles on 28 April to commemorate victims in countries without protective legislation. They also rang out an alarm at fetal deformities due to cancer in women because of health hazards on the job, or pollution.
The women called on politicians to pay more attention to health and safety, and for trade unions to be more involved in job-related safety issues in Arab-Muslim countries. The network appealed to women throughout the world to stand in solidarity against victims of injustices, and with women in areas of conflict in order to promote peace.
The network aims to connect with women workers throughout the world in order to promote sustainable development and occupational safety. It started with women in Arab-Muslim countries, and now extends to Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Kuwait, Tunisia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, Sudan, Somalia, United Arab Emirates.
9. South Africa Pushes for Constitutional Guarantees of Gender Equality
South Africa’s Cabinet is 42% women, one of the highest percentages in the world. South Africa’s Commission on Gender Equality has called consultations on a draft protocol to break new ground to make first-time commitments on gender equality in a sub-regional document.
In August, the Heads of State of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) will be called upon to elevate the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development to a more biding Protocol. NGOs have audited the 1997 declaration and decided that non-binding measures have not worked. Legally binding measures are now being sought to move SADC to implementation.
The African Union has come out in favour of gender parity, but it has not set targets.
Setting targets has the effect of mobilising those who lag behind, since no country wants to be seen as the worst performer. All SADC countries, except Botswana, have increased the proportion of women in parliament. The increases have been particularly marked in Swaziland, Malawi, and Mauritius. On average, women comprise 20% of the region’s legislators, second only to the Nordic countries.
In addition, countries would be required to specify that in case there is a conflict between customary and state law, the national constitution will take precedence, as is the case in South Africa. Customary laws govern most women’s lives in the region, so that this change may be the most significant of all. These changes are slow but necessary if the root inequalities are to be eliminated.
10. Resources
The World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report on the Millenium Goals shows that progress toward gender equality is lagging. Available on the World Bank’s website:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS
/0,,contentMDK:21296903~pagePK:64257043~
piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html
Coalition of Labor Union Women, the working women’s organization in the United States:
www.cluw.org
The Berger-Marks Foundation assists organizations in organizing:
www.bergermarks.org
Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2007 (draws attention to gender inequalities)
www.unescap.org/publications/detail.asp?id=1205