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3 November, 2005
1. Denmark – Paternity Leave
In 2002, new and extended rules for maternity leave were introduced in Denmark. The family has 52 weeks available that can be shared between father and mother. The official figures from Statistics Denmark show that 46,447 fathers went on paternity leave in 2004, the highest ever. It is an increase of 6% over the year before. On average, fathers took 3.6 weeks of paternity leave, a new record in Denmark.
The problem for women who make use of the new and extended maternity leave is that they often return to a job inferior to the one they had before taking leave. A survey shows that 30% of the women who had maternity leave by the new rules find that it has adverse effects on their careers. Only 4% of the men have similar experiences.
The United Federation of Danish Workers is working on a survey to determine cultural and structural barriers that prevent fathers from having a longer period of parental leave. The survey investigates how workplace culture and traditional roles in the family have an influence when men decide to have paternity leave. For more information on the survey please contact the Department for Equality and Family Policy, c/o [email protected].
2. Brazil – Government launches Gender Equality Program
The Brazilian federal government launched a gender equality program on 22 September to boost the promotion of equality between women and men. The program is based on partnership between UNIFEM (UN Women’s Development Fund) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The program will grant pro-equality seals for the development of programs to benefit women. The seal is geared to promote company best practices. To start with, the program is geared to public enterprises and will be open to private companies at a later date.
3. Brazil – FETIESC and the 10th Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Meeting
FETIESC, the Santa Catarina Federation, was a promoter of the 10th Latin American and Caribbean Feminist meeting held from 9-12 October in Sao Paulo. The main theme of the meeting was Feminism and Democracy. One panel discussed, in addition, Feminism – Present and Future.
Four dialogues went into the relationship between feminism and racism, ethnocentricity, youth and lesbianism. These meetings have been continuing since the 1980s and have served to create a Latin American and Caribbean network.
In addition, FETIESC carried out a workshop on 6 October on Women’s Communication and Expression.
4. Canada – CEP 6th Women’s Conference
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada held its 6th Women’s Conference from 16-18 October 2005 in the maritime province of New Brunswick. The conference theme was “Our Time, Our Terms, Women March On.”
The conference had workshop sessions on equity, pay equity and women in solidarity in Canada and abroad. Caucuses were also held on young workers, regional caucuses, aboriginal people, people of colour, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered workers, and people with disabilities.
The conference was held against the background of the women’s world march and the women’s global charter for humanity. The women’s charter is a proposal to build a world where exploitation, oppression, intolerance and exclusion no longer exist and where integrity, diversity and the rights and freedoms of all are respected. The core values for this vision of the world are equality, freedom, solidarity, justice and peace. These, too, were the CEP conference themes.
The last day of the conference coincided with the arrival of the women’s charter quilt in Burkina Faso after it went around the world.
5. Germany – Gender and the 3rd IGBCE Congress
IGBCE women presented motions to the 3rd IGBCE Congress held 9-14 October 2005 on work-life balance and gender and health. Some German companies have best practices to share, the so-called chemical triangle in Leuna, the Mapa Company and Tesa.
The chemical triangle around Leuna is expecting a labour shortage in the coming years, which means that even employers are keen on developing work-life balance. It is, however, as a rule easier for large-scale companies to develop work-life balance arrangements than for small and medium-sized companies, which is why IGBCE organized a project on good practice for small and medium-sized companies, including Mapa in Northern Germany.
The focus there was on part-time work. Most people are interested in working part-time in order to be able to look after children and elderly parents. Not all part-timers are happy, however, and many earn less, work more intensely, and are not involved in company life.
The project will continue discussing these obstacles and developing solutions. Tesa organized one workshop and will soon have another on job and family because of the experience that young families have to walk a tightrope between children and career. The workshops are geared to boosting acceptance for alternatives on the part of management as well as the employees.
IGBCE will continue its work on gender and health.
6. ICEM-IUF Workshop on Women and Work
A workshop on women and work was held in the framework of the ICEM-IUF Southeast Europe project in Crikvenica, Croatia, from 10-12 October 2005. The workshop focused on bullying, sexual harassment and equal pay. The women agreed to do research on pay issues in their jobs and to find out what women and men earn in eight specific occupations.
The meeting was one more in the series to build a women’s network in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.
7. Multi GUF Training on Equal Pay
Public Services International (PSI), with the support of FNV Netherlands, sponsored training for all Global Union Federations (GUFs) from 5-7 October 2005 in Montevideo, Uruguay, on equal pay and job evaluation.
The training was provided by Daina Green, an expert from Canada on equal pay and job evaluation. The point is to organize job evaluations that avoid gender bias. The idea is first to minimize gender bias and maximize awareness of the potential problems. Organisations can and will adapt to the systems that fit their needs. For more information see
www.chrc-ccdp.ca/publications/volume1-en.asp.
This work will prove useful to ICEM in its work on equal pay for work of equal value in the pharmaceuticals industry. Some employers, particularly in Brazil, have already expressed an interest in it.
8. UN Population Fund UNFPA State of the World Population 2005
Resolute action to end discrimination against women and lower their fertility rates is the key to meeting the ambitious goal of halving world poverty by 2015, according to the UNFPA report released in October. The report titled The Promise of Equality: Gender Equity, Reproductive Health and the Millennium Development Goals noted that despite new laws and programs to improve the lot of the world’s poorest women, “the pace of change is far too slow.”
The report urged world leaders to fulfil promises made to the world’s women and young people as part of poverty reduction goals agreed five years ago and reaffirmed at a UN summit last month. “Investing in women and girls makes sound economic and social sense,” according to the report which coincides with the 60th anniversary of the UN charter that enshrined gender equality.
In the field of education, the study noted that today, 600 million women are illiterate as compared to 320 million men. The report indicates that reproductive-health problems, including HIV/AIDS, are the leading cause of death and illness among women between the ages of 15 and 44. It made the case that secondary education for women and girls had been shown to translate into improved economic prospects, better reproductive health, improved AIDS awareness and more enlightened attitudes toward practices such as female genital mutilation.
For more information see www.unfpa.org.
9. Uruguay – CUOPYC Cleaning Cooperative
The Uruguay Paper Workers’ Union (CUOPYC) has set up a cleaning cooperative to provide employment for women and daughters of union members, as well as single mothers. This means a new role for the union since it is now involved in creating jobs instead of looking after existing jobs.
The FANAPEL paper company proposed using the cooperative’s services to replace the contract that had expired with the company. Thirteen women, who up to then had no stable income, were provided with cleaning jobs. Very little employment is available for women in Juan Lacaze, the site of FANAPEL, and even less jobs for women who left school early.
The women are between the ages of 18 and 35. They were trained not only in industrial cleaning processes but also in tools to enable their industrial cooperative to stand on its own feet. This enterprise is made up of 13 women, it is a cooperative, and it is lead by a trade union.
10. United States – Where are the Women on TV?
On US news networks, women only represent 14% of guests on influential Sunday morning talk shows. This is one of the findings of a new report by the White House Project. The study also found that more than half of the talk shows did not even include one single woman. Since 2001, the number of women in talk shows has gone up only slightly, from 11% to now 14.
Why does it matter? It should be a concern because people draw conclusions about real life from what they see on television. When they see no women in positions of power, they assume that women are not credible in these positions. If no women speak on TV about national security or arms control, the assumption is that women are not qualified to speak on theses issues and there are no female experts in these fields.
The lack of women on influential political shows also matters because of what media call “agenda setting.” It means that whatever is discussed on these shows is designated as important, and the people doing the talking are recognized as influential. A lack of female voices allows the agenda to be set to exclude them and their issues.
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