‘Value of women inclusion’
INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated in many countries around the world. It is a day when women are recognised for their achievements without regards to divisions whether national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political. The overall objective is the empowerment of women and the recognition of equal rights.
The theme this year is “Inclusion Inspiration”. When we inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion we forge a better world.
Women’s economic empowerment is central to a gender equal world. When women are given equal opportunities to earn, learn and lead — entire communities thrive.
So why is it in Fiji, in the 21st century, Women on boards in Fiji are still well below 30 per cent, I quote from Fiji One News on June 8, 2023.
Women’s participation in state boards and commissions has worsened slightly overall despite promises made by the Coalition government to strongly promote women’s rights.
Recent appointments include all-male representatives in some of the board. The only overall improvement has been for indigenous Fijian males, so how about indigenous Fijian females or just females across the board?
Switch to corporate management roles, The Fiji Women’s Right Movement 2023 Research reveals that women’s representation on boards remains stagnant at 20 per cent in fact this has slipped from 21 per cent in 2020.
So even as Vodafone Fiji Ltd has appointed its first female CEO Mrs Buikoto and congratulations to the RB Patel Group for appointing, Ms Kamal Haer as chairperson for their board, we cannot let this slip anymore. It is disrespectful not to recognise women’s ability as leaders, we are the multi taskers of the world, children, family, housekeeping, cooking, washing, cleaning and in many cases then trudging off to work in an office reporting to managers who are more often than not a male…
In our own parliament there are a total of 55 seats yet only five seats are held by women? It means a whole lot of men are making decisions on our behalf — where is the fairness in that?
Maybe we need to bring back the gender quota that FFP removed during their 16-year reign saying it should be on equal playing field. But in retrospect that’s nonsense because we are not on an equal playing field we do the same job for less.
The gender quota is a tool used by countries and parties to increase women in representation in legislatures. Women are largely under represented in parliaments and account for only 25.8 per cent average in parliaments globally.
As of November 2021 gender quotas have been adopted in 132 countries. The previous government used the argument it should be an equal playing field with no gender bias.
All things are not equal! Women are primary caregivers and not paid. Those that work professional jobs are paid less than men. The structure is not equal, more women graduate than men from universities, but we find more women in jobs receive pay less than men.
One cannot argue equality without equity. Workplaces in Fiji do not support childcare facilities or creches. This is what would make women want to go to work and perform at full capacity because they know their children are being looked after.
There is so much emphasis in the workplace on self-care but no infrastructure to support it in the workplace. Then there is the tragedy of domestic violence. How has the government of this day and days gone addressed domestic violence, very insignificantly.
You know who does most of the work? The severely underfunded women’s organisations like the YWCA, the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, Fiji Women’s Rights Movement create platforms to protect our sisters. The point is if women are being abused at home they will not be productive at work.
My message for IWD is: The second-hand treatment of women has to change. To ensure this change, we must stand up, speak out and support each other, not doing this is literally denying us the existence we deserve!