Lima - With the technical assistance from the ILO, the National Confederation of Private Business Institutions of Peru (CONFIEP) has launched the "Action for Equality" Working Committee for the Promotion of Women's Empowerment in the Business Sector.
"The Committee ratifies the commitment of the Employers Organizations to the empowerment of women in the business sector," said Roque Benavides, president of CONFIEP. "The creation of this Committee is not a symbolic action. We have named it 'Action for Equality', because we precisely want to take concrete and immediate actions".
One of the activities included in the Committee's Action Plan is the creation of a toolbox gathering successful, innovative and replicable national experiences that have made a real contribution to the empowerment of women in the world of work.
CONFIEP received technical assistance from the ILO Bureau for Employers' Activities (ACT/EMP) in the preparation of an initial mapping of the institutions that promote gender equity in Peru, as well as in the identification of successful stories which will be included in the guide and disseminated by the Committee to all Peruvian companies.
The success stories refer mainly to good practices related to work and family balance, and the reduction of the high rates of violence and harassment in the workplace in the country.
Both issues have been highlighted in the recent ILO report “A quantum leap for gender equality. For a Better Future of Work For all”. The report shows that in the last five years, worldwide, the difference between the employment rates of men and women has decreased less than two percentage points. In 2018, women were still 26 percentage points less likely to be in employment than men.

ILO specialist Roberto Villamil appreciated the Committee's commitment to gather and disseminate good practices related to the equitable distribution of care work and the protection and prevention from violence and harassment at work. In addition to this task, he emphasized the importance of assigning the Committee, as one of its key functions, the work on public policy advocacy to accelerate the closing of gender gaps in the business world.

"Despite progress observed in recent years, there is still much to be done. The difference in remuneration between men and women remains at 20 percent worldwide. "Equality of opportunities between men and women is not something that has to be achieved just because it is politically correct, or because it is convenient for companies in terms of productivity. The work that this Committee intends to address is, essentially, a matter of social justice", he concluded.