Conclusions

264. By 1978, when the Committee reviewed the application of the Employment (Women with Family Responsibilities) Recommendation, 1965 (No. 123), it was already widely acknowledged in national policies that women's family responsibilities were a significant cause of the direct and indirect discrimination in employment to which they were subject. Accordingly, the Committee was able to refer to exceptional advances in the 13 years since the adoption of the Recommendation, made by a remarkably large number of governments, to expand the services that enabled women to reconcile their dual family and work commitments. The Committee was also able to anticipate, on the basis of the reports submitted, a further long-term improvement in the position of working women. Less well developed, at that time, was the realization that equality might also require an evolution in the respective roles of men and women in society.

265. Bearing in mind that Convention No. 156 and Recommendation No. 165 were adopted only 12 years ago, the Committee has been gratified to note that many governments, enterprises and trade unions are actively fostering measures both to improve conditions of work and social security for men and women with family responsibilities and to bring about a more equitable sharing of domestic responsibilities. Implicit in this is acceptance of the need to respond to the evolution of our societies. Economic development everywhere has been followed by changes in the composition of the labour force. Most notable has been the change in women's occupational patterns: over the past 30 years, the number and proportion of married women and mothers in the paid workforce has increased dramatically in most countries. Women's increased economic independence seems to have been an influential factor in fostering a change in the traditional relations between the sexes. In addition, it has been widely recognized that, despite the decided emphasis on equality in employment over the last two decades, women's position in the labour market still tends to mirror their traditional domestic role. Women tend to undertake occupations in the caring professions that may be regarded as a natural extension of homemaking and nurturing. Moreover, they predominate in low status, often precarious, jobs at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy, a situation which results both from the expectation that they will forego a career for family concerns and from the need to opt for the type of employment that will enable them to meet their actual or potential family obligations. Thus, a gender-based division of labour unfortunately remains the norm in most countries. Men are also disadvantaged by the lack of equality of opportunity between the sexes. From a young age, they are subject to strong societal pressure to assume the role of the family's sole or principal breadwinner. As a result, there is an expectation that job and career concerns should override their desire for family involvement, particularly in regard to the rearing of their children.

266. The creation of conditions that enable workers to choose the type of employment best suited to their individual family circumstances, free from discriminatory constraints -- including those imposed by tradition -- is fundamental to the principle of equality of opportunity and treatment in employment. Because measures to allow men and women to harmonize their work and family commitments are a natural extension of the well-accepted principles on equality, Convention No. 156 and Recommendation No. 165 must be viewed as a necessary part of the overall goal of ensuring that every man and woman should have the opportunity to play a full role in social, economic and public life and also in the family.

267. The importance of these instruments in the overall framework of equality is reflected in the two most recent resolutions of the International Labour Conference concerning equality. The 1985 resolution on equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women in employment calls for all necessary steps to be taken to ratify Convention No. 156 and to implement the provisions of Recommendation No. 165. A similar appeal to member States is made in the 1991 resolution concerning ILO action for women workers, which also calls for strengthening the ILO's action with a view to stimulating and assisting governments in the implementation of ILO standards concerning equality for women, in particular Conventions Nos. 100, 111 and 156.

268. The vast majority of reports describe the general measures taken to eliminate discrimination against women in employment and occupation, including during and after pregnancy. While such measures are an essential basis for ensuring equality for working women they are not sufficient to meet the primary purpose of the instruments under review. The main requirement of the instruments consists of declaring and pursuing a national policy aimed at enabling persons with family responsibilities to be employed without discrimination and, as far as possible, without conflict with their family responsibilities. The implementation of this policy would normally involve a comparable degree of coordination and interaction between all of the various authorities responsible for implementing a more general equality policy, as is required, for example, under Convention No. 111. In particular, the objective of Convention No. 156 should be included within the framework of a government's policy to promote equality of opportunity and treatment in all fields of training and employment.

269. However the policy is enunciated, it is indispensable to its application that vigorous measures be taken to promote public awareness of the need for equal opportunity for men and women workers with family responsibilities and the need for changes in attitude. The Committee has been encouraged to note that a number of countries have carried out community education programmes directed at educational institutions, maternity hospitals, and workplaces, which have highlighted the benefits of achieving a better balance between work and home for men and women, and for the children and other family members needing care and support.

270. In order to eliminate direct and indirect discrimination in respect of recruitment, terms and conditions of employment and job security for workers with family responsibilities, some countries have enacted legislation to make the ground of family responsibilities an express ground on which discrimination is proscribed, usually within the framework of wider measures to ensure equality in employment. While such action is not yet very widespread, there are many examples of practical measures being taken or envisaged to facilitate the entry and, particularly the re-entry, to employment of workers with family responsibilities. For the most part, these measures are integrated with vocational guidance and training services in the same way these elements are linked in the Convention and Recommendation.

271. Innovations in the arrangement of working time have also been introduced over the last two decades, mostly in the industrialized countries. Though many of these initiatives have been prompted by economic concerns, family considerations are increasingly being taken into account in the design of such schemes. Important among these moves is the wider acknowledgement and, therefore, formalization of part-time work and job sharing as appropriate ways of maintaining a career while at the same time attending to family needs. In some jurisdictions, part-time workers are also given priority for filling full-time positions that become vacant.

272. Parental leave, usually unremunerated, is also becoming more widespread, though the duration and conditions for taking this leave of absence are subject to vast variations between countries and between individual enterprises. While relatively few men avail themselves of this right, there appears to have been an increase in the number of fathers taking paternity leave to care for children less than 1 year old. While men therefore appear to desire a greater involvement in the rearing of their children, they are, at the same time, still subject to intense societal pressure to maintain their role as the family income-earner. This consideration must, however, also be linked to the position of women in the labour market: as long as women tend to be employed in low status jobs with low remuneration, it obviously makes more economic sense for women to take unpaid leave than for men.

273. Less widely available is the right to short periods of leave to care for a sick child or other family member, the availability of which would appear to be very important in terms of legitimizing absences that could otherwise be deemed irresponsible behaviour in an employment relationship: when no provision is made for workers to deal with an urgent situation, they may be led to explain their absences on more acceptable grounds, such as sick leave. Furthermore, when the obligation to cope with family crises falls on women workers -- or when only women workers are granted the right to take leave for such purposes -- this tends to reinforce negative assumptions about women's attitudes to employment.

274. While there has been significant progress in the development of child-care services and facilities and some improvements as regards family services and facilities, these measures do not seem to have occurred as a result of public policies designed specifically for the benefit of workers with family responsibilities. Often, they have been developed to respond to the needs of particular groups, such as women workers, single-parent or large families, low income or ethnic minority families and other underprivileged groups. In a number of countries where the growth of programmes for pre-school children has been remarkable, such growth may be attributable more to a policy aimed at preparing children for primary school than to a concern for the needs of their working parents. Such services will of course, in practice, benefit workers with family responsibilities, especially when their operating hours coincide with the working day. What remains to be highlighted is that, besides preparing children for school, a legitimate aim of such services should be to facilitate the employment of parents.

275. From the reports reviewed, it appears moreover that progress has been uneven, both between and within regions and countries, and as regards the various types of services required. While the provision of day-care facilities for pre-school children seems to have increased significantly in a number of countries, they remain inadequate in many and non-existent in some. Care for schoolchildren out of school hours has also improved in several countries, mostly through community or self-help initiatives. In some industrialized countries where the ageing of the population has become a significant concern of public policy, the care needs of the frail elderly are also attracting growing attention. Effective home-help services to assist working parents when a child or other dependent family member is ill, have not apparently attracted the attention they deserve.

276. Services provided in response to the needs of women, or of single-parent families (which are headed overwhelmingly by women), are no doubt essential to enable women to become or remain integrated in the workforce. Such services do improve women's opportunities in employment. However, when these services are designed specifically for women, that situation tends to perpetuate the notion that child rearing is the concern only of a mother.

277. On the basis of the reports reviewed, it is evident that many countries are in the process of instituting measures consistent with the objectives of the instruments under review. Not surprisingly, the development of such measures has been strongest in those countries with already well-established policies and goals concerning equality between men and women. Action to implement the Convention and Recommendation has appeared to them a necessary step in the process of identifying and attempting to address all of the interrelated factors at the root of gender discrimination. It is all the more satisfactory, therefore, to note the extent to which the provisions of the instruments are receiving consideration in countries with much less experience in the promotion of equality of opportunity and treatment. The Committee would like to encourage these countries to apply the provisions of the instruments and, where possible, ratify the Convention.

278. In the course of examining the reports submitted for the present survey, the Committee has become aware that a significant number of governments and employers' and workers' organizations do not seem to clearly understand the purpose and requirements of the instruments. Therefore, the importance of the instruments in furthering equality between men and women tends to be insufficiently understood. For this reason, the Committee considers it vital that greater efforts be made by the Office to sensitize decision-makers at the national level, and the international community at large, to the need to apply the principles contained in these instruments and to ratify Convention No. 156, in order that real gains may be made towards achieving equality. The Committee also considers that measures to publicize the Convention and Recommendation would be a particularly appropriate response to the activities planned to celebrate 1994 as the International Year of the Family.

Cross references
Constitution: Article 19
Constitution: Article 22
Constitution: Article 35
Conventions: C100 Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951
Conventions: C111 Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958
Recommendations:R123 Employment (Women with Family Responsibilities) Recommendation, 1965