‘Many girls come to the workplace already bruised and wounded’
A group of women and men from the informal economy, business, academia, civil society, government recently met to discuss a report that was commissioned as contribution towards the ILO Centenary Initiatives under the “Future of Women at Work Initiative.” This Initiative is one of the seven ideas that have been selected as discussion topics, as the Organization marches to its 100 years of existence.
10 October 2016
(ILO News) Harare: The study’s focus on the Zimbabwean workplace was to conduct a historical analysis on women at work; develop a discussion note on the future of women at work; conduct an assessment of levels of knowledge within trained tripartite constituents; and make recommendations on the kind of interventions required to bring transformational change for women in the workplace and solicit opinions on the ‘Future of work’ for women in the country.
The different findings established that women ‘dominate unpaid work, precarious employment, low wage jobs, and everything that comes with informal economies, such as zero job security, no social security nor empowerment. With dwindling formal employment and negative job creation, female workers find themselves confronted by traditional challenges, such as sexual harassment, unpaid maternity leave, and are soft targets during retrenchment and general gender discrimination by virtue of being women’.
The findings triggered animated comments, with some questioning why Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) has not yet been ratified as the country tries to harmonise the labour laws to the Constitution, whilst others viewed paternity leave as a tool to advocate for gender equality. The July 2015 Supreme Court judgement on summary retrenchments and dismissals brought in a shift in the statistics in the informal sector, with more skilled workers being forced to join vendors in the informal economy, highlighting the negative effects for women already participating in this sector. It was also deemed necessary to review the education curriculum to ensure gender equality becomes part of the taught programmes; and that there was a link between the macroeconomic history of Zimbabwe and the impact of economic policy on women and men from 1997 to 2016, emphasizing how the distressed economy of the country may have pushed more women into not reporting cases of sexual harassment due to fear of losing the scarce jobs.
The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Dr Perpetua Gumbo highlighted how ‘a lot of women are engaged in care work, which is undervalued and unremunerated. Women are also engaged in low paying, precarious occupations like farming where they often sell their produce at a loss’. Acknowledging the UN’s contribution to changing women’s circumstances in the country, Dr Gumbo also bemoaned the high levels of informality, with women suffering the most.
Chipping into the discussion, Fiona Magaya, the Gender Adviser at the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) revealed that sexual harassment was not confined to the formal sector only because evidence pointed to systematic incidences of sexual harassment to informal workers involved in cross border trading at border posts. This led to trade unions realising the need to change their organising techniques to reach out to these informal workers. She also expressed the importance of recognising stay-at-home mothers as workers because their contribution not only impacted the family, but did make a silent impact to the GDP of the country.
Edith Kayinga, who was the Employers’ representative at the meeting, left the room spellbound by some of her experiences as a Human Resource practitioner with one of the multinational companies. Whilst she has put in place some mentoring initiatives for young female entrants in the job market at her workplace, she lamented some of the desperate cases because ‘it starts with the home, it starts with the school, unfortunately, many girls come into the workplace already bruised and wounded’.
The different findings established that women ‘dominate unpaid work, precarious employment, low wage jobs, and everything that comes with informal economies, such as zero job security, no social security nor empowerment. With dwindling formal employment and negative job creation, female workers find themselves confronted by traditional challenges, such as sexual harassment, unpaid maternity leave, and are soft targets during retrenchment and general gender discrimination by virtue of being women’.
‘30% in the labour force are women; 5% are in senior management; 3% of Zimbabwean boards are chaired by women’
The findings triggered animated comments, with some questioning why Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) has not yet been ratified as the country tries to harmonise the labour laws to the Constitution, whilst others viewed paternity leave as a tool to advocate for gender equality. The July 2015 Supreme Court judgement on summary retrenchments and dismissals brought in a shift in the statistics in the informal sector, with more skilled workers being forced to join vendors in the informal economy, highlighting the negative effects for women already participating in this sector. It was also deemed necessary to review the education curriculum to ensure gender equality becomes part of the taught programmes; and that there was a link between the macroeconomic history of Zimbabwe and the impact of economic policy on women and men from 1997 to 2016, emphasizing how the distressed economy of the country may have pushed more women into not reporting cases of sexual harassment due to fear of losing the scarce jobs.
The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, Dr Perpetua Gumbo highlighted how ‘a lot of women are engaged in care work, which is undervalued and unremunerated. Women are also engaged in low paying, precarious occupations like farming where they often sell their produce at a loss’. Acknowledging the UN’s contribution to changing women’s circumstances in the country, Dr Gumbo also bemoaned the high levels of informality, with women suffering the most.
Chipping into the discussion, Fiona Magaya, the Gender Adviser at the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) revealed that sexual harassment was not confined to the formal sector only because evidence pointed to systematic incidences of sexual harassment to informal workers involved in cross border trading at border posts. This led to trade unions realising the need to change their organising techniques to reach out to these informal workers. She also expressed the importance of recognising stay-at-home mothers as workers because their contribution not only impacted the family, but did make a silent impact to the GDP of the country.
Edith Kayinga, who was the Employers’ representative at the meeting, left the room spellbound by some of her experiences as a Human Resource practitioner with one of the multinational companies. Whilst she has put in place some mentoring initiatives for young female entrants in the job market at her workplace, she lamented some of the desperate cases because ‘it starts with the home, it starts with the school, unfortunately, many girls come into the workplace already bruised and wounded’.