Supporting Men and Women to Share Unpaid Caring: The Most Powerful Way to Increase Women’s Economic Empowerment? Part 2- The Global South

As this session went on, it became inherently clear that many of the matters being discussed were only relevant for those living in the global north. Those living in the global south weren’t necessarily thinking about paternity leave when legislation was just starting to address safely incorporating women into the formal workforce, cycles of familial poverty, and maternity leave. Similarly, discussions surrounding the sharing of unpaid work change in the context of informal economies, which exist in both the global north and south, but are oftentimes less regulated in the global south. The third panelist was Gary Barker, the president and CEO of Promundo, an NGO based in Brazil that involves men and boys in gender equality advocacy. Mr. Barker’s perspective as a male from the global south diversified the conversation. In Brazil, women partake in unpaid care work three times as much as men. Legislation to address this has fallen flat because researchers haven’t yet been able to gather statistics on the state of fathers; those gathered are often attributed to chance and show no consistent patterns. If a man is not raised to participate in unpaid care work (i.e. watched their father take part) he is reluctant to take time off work, feels inadequate to perform such duties, and expects female partners to uphold social norms. Barker also mentioned the isolation and depression most men who take on unpaid care work experience, acknowledging the irony that society expects a woman to silently swallow this isolation and depression.

            The last panelist was Jillian Bartlett, General Secretary of the National Union of Government & Federated Workers of Trinidad and Tobago. I found Ms. Bartlett’s speaking points to be most enlightening concerning the global south. In Trinidad and Tobago, women participate in unpaid care work four times as much as men. However, Bartlett argues that this can be attributed to the fact that women are conditioned to think that men’s work is more important. Unpaid care work is intrinsically devalued; what value can there be in something that does not reap monetary reward? She goes on to argue that creating agencies such as trade unions to represent such women can provide safe spaces to destroy these perceptions. If we change the way society views unpaid care work (men are not babysitting when they agree to watch their children!) we invest in a future that focuses on sustainability rather than constructed gender differences.

Supporting Men and Women to Share Unpaid Caring: The Most Powerful Way to Increase Women’s Economic Empowerment? Part I- The Global North

Sponsored by the Women and Equalities Committee of the United Kingdom House of Commons, this session proposed that if more governments offered paid paternity leave, the burden of child/elderly-care could shift, in turn creating more equal partnerships between men and women. Panelist Monika Queisser from Germany’s Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) presented statistics collected from all over the globe that helped quantify the problem; gender gaps undoubtedly widen as children enter the picture. Not surprisingly, once a woman has a child, she spends more time performing unpaid care work (around three times more than her male partner) and less time in the paid workforce. Countries such as Norway (recently found to be the happiest country in the world) and Sweden have been able to combat this trajectory by offering 14 weeks of paternity leave that is non-transferrable and highly compensated. Studies show that not only does this redistribute the responsibilities of household unpaid care work, but also improves father-child relations.

Interestingly enough, although Korea and Japan offer the most paid paternity leave of all countries studied by Germany’s OECD, father’s in these countries take the least amount of time off. Yiping Cai, panelist and Executive Committee Member of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) of China, explained that this is a result of existing patriarchal norms that dominate most of the Asian continent. Men who chose to take advantage of paternity leave are often ridiculed by peers when they return to work, their masculinity challenged. In China, very few provinces have implemented paternity leave as family dynamics shift with the relaxation of the (highly gendered) one-child law. These stigmas are slowly being addressed in mainstream media, with Chinese soap operas and commercials incorporating sensitive, involved father figures. However, Yiping’s concerns are more about what these fathers are doing during unpaid leave. Citing both personal experience as well as media sources, Yiping claims that many men in China are both uncomfortable and unequipped when it comes to childcare, oftentimes spending their paid time off playing video-games or watching TV instead of attending to their children. She suggests child-rearing instruction be incorporated into public education curricula (for both genders), starting at a young age, to curb this issue. Panelists all agreed that fathers’ unease with the duties of unpaid care spans across many nations and that education initiatives addressing this would benefit societies hoping to empower women within the home and in the workplace.

Image Source: http://www.oecd.org/gender/data/length-of-maternity-leave-parental-leave-and-paid-father-specific-leave.htm

Young Women's Leadership and Voices at the UN

How Are Young Women Using Their Voices? 

by Meriam Sabih 

The briefing on "Young Women's Leadership and Voices at the UN" started off with one of the panelists Aasha Shaik, a 17 year old from Rutgers University singing, "Tick Tock" an anthem she wrote for the "International Day of the Girl." She then went on to ask, "Why girl's rights?" Do girl's rights fall under women's rights or children rights? When girl's rights are lumped into women's rights then often issues such as child marriage can be sidelined. 

When girls rights are lumped together with children's rights they often resources can go to boys she said. It is simply a stereotype that girls are not interested in leadership and the problems of the world around them. But we need to provide more pathways for girl's to become involved and bring girl's to the table. There are various ways of marginalization that girls face that are already twofold; gender and age but also includes race, religion, and more...these stereotypes are only compounded in girls of color from marginalized communities. Girls need to be aware that they deserve opportunities. And good leaders are those who have people around them do great thing, the focus is the impact they have on others. "It's important to acknowledge our own privilege," Shaik said. Once that privilege is acknowledged she encouraged young women to confront it and reach out to help someone who does not have such privilege. She spoke of the girl advocate program to represent girls at the United Nations through The Working Group on Girls (WWG) and were instrumental at assuring the Sustainable Development Goals are not discriminatory for girls.

Lehigh University student Renu Zhu was the moderator for the briefing. She spoke of various programs that teach a nuanced view of global affairs and fostering feminist engagement. The briefing was also intended tostress the importance of intergenerational conversation. The target of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to achieve women’s rights, but cannot do that without ending inequalities, social justice and creating more democratic spaces.

Alina Saba, from the National Indigenous Women Forum (NWIF) a group that works for the political and economic empowerment indigenous women, said we must question deep structural biases. This even includes why some countries are richer than others and have more access to resources than others. Aishwarya Narasimhadevara, NGO Youth Representative for the Medical Women's International Association said that collaboration is important and it also starts with us being true to ourselves. "We can all come together and use our gifts to create a better society," stated Narasinhadavera.

Another powerful speaker Noluthando Nzimande, started her activism at the age of 12. “If you don’t open the space it will not be used," she exclaimed. She said it was the NGO in her country of South Africa that really cared about allowing the young person to speak for themselves. She said it was important not focus on telling them what’s wrong, but letting them analyze issues for themselves and come to their own conclusions.“Today I'm 23 and I don’t have a child...my work has prepared me to have my own voice and my own rights. I think at this age is more important than being a mother. My work at the UN has been amazing experience. I can stand in front of a minister even from my country and tell them what I think," she said. She advised that impact of leadership should not only be "on the black and white report" but the impact and results should be visible in the people you are working with. "Each of us has a duty to turn our male counterparts as Womanists. We need to take the responsibility to educate others. To the UN we appreciate you but you need to open more space to marginalized groups. We are just accommodated in someone else’s space," Nzimande said. She reminded us that there is a way in which 1+4=6. It is when Goal #1 Eradicating Poverty plus Goal # 2 Education equals Goal #6 which is Peace. And surely a lot more needs to be done to not only treat girls as equals but even at places like the UN, more should be done to empower young female leadership and make more spaces for marginalized groups to feel welcome and heard.

Fighting Xenophobia: Migrants Offer Much More Than They Take

There is overwhelming evidence to suggest the positive impact that migrants have on the economies of the countries in which they arrive. A common myth that perpetuates prejudice and discrimination against migrant women, children and men is the idea that they take more away from the host country than they provide. Given the extent to which migrants contribute to the host economy through taxes and supplementing the labor market, they largely overcompensate for what they take away in terms of the host country’s services. Yet with all of the evidence arguing in favor of migrants, xenophobia still seems to be a growing issue among the public.

The OECD Report (2014) states, “In the U.S., evidence shows that skilled immigrants contribute to boosting research and innovation, as well as technological progress, which leads to more jobs.”

With the fears generated from the government and media, countries are unable to see the value that migrants, in particular migrant women, have to contribute to the given host country. A good portion of migrants entering into the U.S., for example, are argued to be a ‘brain waste,' where they are forced into manual labor positions that do not match their capabilities and professional experiences. For example, migrants with PhD’s from their home countries may not be given the recognition they deserve by the given host country and are made to drive taxis for a living. That is not to say that migrants who do manual labor are not contributing in a positive way to these economies as they are filling in for positions that are undesired by the larger public. It is, however, a shame that migrant individuals, who could have a much larger impact on the host country, are not given the recognition and capacity to do so because of their status. 

The Together campaign specifically focuses on generating a global movement of tolerance, solidarity, empathy and protection for all migrants. They look to put real faces and stories at the forefront of the movement so as to humanize the experiences that migrant women, children and men face. Unfortunately, the world’s shifting political climate is contributing to growing instances of xenophobia and discrimination towards migrants. As the climate continues, it is not only up to the larger organizations such as the NGO Committee on Migration but also on individuals to combat this prejudice and discrimination.