R123 Employment (Women with Family Responsibilities)
Recommendation, 1965
Recommendation concerning the Employment of Women with Family
Responsibilities
Recommendation:R123
Place: Geneva
Session of the Conference:49
Date of adoption=22:06:1965
The General Conference of the International Labour
Organisation,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Forty-ninth Session on 2 June
1965, and
Noting the fact that in many countries women are working
outside their homes in increasing numbers as an integral and essential part of
the labour force, and
Noting further that many such women have special problems
arising out of the need to reconcile their dual family and work
responsibilities, and
Noting that many of these problems, though they have
particular relevance to the opportunities for employment of women workers with
family responsibilities, also confront other workers and can be substantially
alleviated by measures affecting all workers, such as the progressive reduction
of daily and weekly hours of work, and
Noting further that many of the special problems faced by
women with family responsibilities are not problems peculiar to women workers
but are problems of the family and of society as a whole, and
Recognising that continuous social adaptation is required to
meet these problems in a manner consistent with the best interests of all
concerned, and
Aware of the need for governments and for all public and
private organisations concerned to give consideration to these problems in a
broad social, economic and legal context, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with
regard to the employment of women with family responsibilities, which is the
fifth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form
of a Recommendation,
adopts this twenty-second day of June of the year one
thousand nine hundred and sixty-five, the following Recommendation, which may be
cited as the Employment (Women with Family Responsibilities) Recommendation,
1965:
The Conference recommends that each Member should apply the
following provisions as fully and as rapidly as national conditions allow:
The competent authorities should, in co-operation with
the public and private organisations concerned, in particular employers' and
workers' organisations, and in accordance with national and local needs and
possibilities:
pursue an appropriate policy with a view to enabling
women with family responsibilities who work outside their homes to exercise
their right to do so without being subject to discrimination and in accordance
with the principles laid down in the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation)
Convention, 1958, as well as in other standards relating to women adopted by the
International Labour Conference; and
encourage, facilitate or themselves undertake the
development of services to enable women to fulfil their various responsibilities
at home and at work harmoniously.
The competent authorities should, in co-operation with
the public and private organisations concerned, in particular employers' and
workers' organisations, take appropriate steps:
to encourage such consideration of the problems of women
workers with family responsibilities as may be necessary to help these workers
to become effectively integrated in the labour force on the basis of equal
rights;
to undertake or promote such research as may be
necessary and feasible into the various aspects of the employment of women
workers with family responsibilities with a view to presenting objective
information on which sound policies and measures may be based; and
to engender broader public understanding of the problems
of these workers with a view to developing community policies and a climate of
opinion conducive to helping them to meet their family and employment
responsibilities.
With a view to determining the scope and character of the
child-care services and facilities needed to assist women workers to meet their
employment and family responsibilities, the competent authorities should, in
co-operation with the public and private organisations concerned, in particular
employers' and workers' organisations, and within the scope of their resources
for collecting information, take such measures as may be necessary and
appropriate:
to collect and publish adequate statistics on the number
of mothers engaged in or seeking employment and on the number and age of their
children; and
to ascertain, through systematic surveys conducted more
particularly in local communities, the needs and preferences for child-care
arrangements organised outside the family.
The competent authorities should, in co-operation with
the public and private organisations concerned, take appropriate steps to ensure
that child-care services and facilities meet the needs and preferences so
revealed; to this end they should, taking account of national and local
circumstances and possibilities, in particular:
encourage and facilitate the establishment, particularly
in local communities, of plans for the systematic development of child-care
services and facilities; and
themselves organise as well as encourage and facilitate
the provision of adequate and appropriate child-care services and facilities, at
reasonable charge or free in case of need, developed along flexible lines and
meeting the needs of children of different ages and of their working parents.
With a view to safeguarding the health and welfare of the child:
child-care services and facilities of all types should
comply with standards laid down and supervised by the competent authorities;
such standards should prescribe in particular the
equipment and hygienic requirements of the services and facilities provided and
the number and qualifications of the staff; and
the competent authorities should provide or help to
ensure the provision of adequate training at various levels for the personnel
needed to staff child-care services and facilities.
The competent authorities should, with the co-operation
and participation of the public and private organisations concerned, in
particular employers' and workers' organisations, help to ensure public
understanding and support for efforts made to meet the special needs of working
parents in respect of child-care services and facilities.
The competent authorities should take all measures in
accordance with the Employment Policy Convention, 1964, and the Employment
Policy Recommendation, 1964, to enable women with family responsibilities to
become or to remain integrated in the labour force as well as to re-enter the
labour force.
With a view to enabling women with family
responsibilities to become integrated in the labour force on a footing of
equality, and with a view to facilitating their entry into employment or their
re-entry after a comparatively long period of absence, the competent authorities
should, in co-operation with the public and private organisations concerned, in
particular employers' and workers' organisations, take all measures that may be
necessary in the national circumstances:
to ensure the provision for girls of general education,
vocational guidance and vocational training free from any form of discrimination
on the ground of sex;
to encourage girls to obtain a sound vocational
preparation as a basis for their future work lives; and
to convince parents and educators of the need to give
girls a sound vocational preparation.
The competent authorities should, in co-operation with
the public and private organisations concerned and taking account of national
needs and possibilities, provide or help to ensure the provision of the services
that may be necessary to facilitate the entry into employment of women who have
not yet worked, or the re-entry into employment of women who have been out of
the employment market for a comparatively long time, owing, in particular, to
family responsibilities.
Such services should be organised within the framework
of existing services for all workers or, in default thereof, along lines
appropriate to national conditions; they should include adequate counselling,
information and placement services and provide adequate vocational training and
retraining facilities appropriate to the needs of the women concerned and
available without distinction as regards age.
The services and facilities should be kept under review
in order to ensure that they are properly adapted to the special needs of these
women workers and to the changing needs and tendencies of economic and
technological development.
In the case of women who, on account of their family
responsibilities arising out of maternity, do not find themselves in a position
to return to their employment immediately following exhaustion of the normal
period of maternity leave established by law or practice, appropriate measures
should be taken to the extent possible to allow them a reasonable further period
of leave of absence without relinquishing their employment, all rights resulting
from their employment being fully safeguarded.
In case of termination of employment following
maternity, the women concerned should be considered for re-employment in
accordance with the provisions applicable under the Termination of Employment
Recommendation, 1963, to workers whose employment has been terminated owing to a
reduction of the work force.
To the extent necessary the public and private
organisations concerned, in particular employers' and workers' organisations,
should co-operate with the competent authorities and collaborate with each other
to take other measures and promote other action to assist women workers to meet
their employment and family responsibilities without detriment to their
opportunities for employment and promotion.
In this connection attention should be given, as local
needs require and possibilities permit, to matters which have particular
relevance for women workers with family responsibilities, such as the
organisation of public transport, the harmonisation of working hours and hours
of schools and child-care services or facilities, and the provision at low cost
of the facilities required to simplify and lighten household tasks.
Particular efforts should be made to develop home-aid
services operating under public authority or supervision and providing women
workers with family responsibilities, in the event of family need, with
qualified assistance at reasonable charge.
