By Dr. Suman Kumar Regmi
Despite the major legislative and contractual gains made by women in the area of equality of opportunity, women continue to be employed in occupations and positions which are inferior to those of males. Their value is underestimated and indeed their contributions are often invisible in terms of social and monetary recognition. The intention of this social expression describe several situations where the invisibility of women’s work has led to severe social stress. She provides concrete examples and suggestions for change and for making women’s work socially visible.
It can be begun with the following argument: ‘Women’s work is invisible. It is high time to make it visible to improve working conditions. Based on the strength of experience in dealing with women’s experiences in the labor market, it is confident in asserting that women, as an ‘occupational category’ unto themselves, are still at a disadvantage regarding influence in the labor market- a startling statement in the years of 21st century.
Women employees predominate in subordinate positions, which means that they have less opportunity to use their experiences on the job to influence the working environment and the organization of work. Also, women very often have ‘hidden’ qualifications and experiences because they are less amply documented than those of men, and because a lower value is placed on these qualifications than on male qualifications and experiences. One major reason is that the men who hold the power and can exert influence at work, have little knowledge about women’s experiences or their value. Men and women have different jobs and duties.
There is no denying the almost revolutionary increase in the participation rate of females in labor market over the past decades. This trend has established new social and cultural patterns.
Women have predominately entered the public sector in such areas as education, social services, banking, computer, and caring professions. The female labor market is, to a very great extent, a projection of the unvalued tasks which women have traditionally done in the home.
Some are predominantly female jobs, which is comparable to similar jobs held by women around the country and the world. Anybody can talk with women from various occupational fields, and although the meeting with them is not in-depth, they will not be sufficient to reveal that women have little opportunity to influence their work.
Traffic officers used to be called ground hostesses. Their main job is to look after and guide very people to and from different places. Traffic officers also existed at the time as well, but the positions were mostly held by men. As ground services carried out by the women grew more extensive, they were permitted to assume the title of traffic officers as well. Women make up most of the workers in the staff category. 90 percent of the supervisory staff governing this type of work, are related to, however, men.
The objective is equality of opportunities and of conditions at work for both sexes. A necessary first step in achieving equal opportunity is to expose injustice so that appropriate changes can be sought. But, in an earlier society, there is always the risk that men will feel themselves to be an endangered group because the privileges they had long held have begun to be challenged by women demanding their just entitlement under the law and collective agreements: equal conditions.
To conclude, equality at work is dependent on both women and men having the opportunity for self-development at work. In other words, it is not sufficient for both women and men to be gainfully employed. Working conditions will have to be changed and invisible work made visible. In addition, training and education are needed which heightens people’s awareness of how equal opportunity can be promoted. To some extent, this sort of training has already begun in the country.
Unions can intervene to support women to achieve equal entitlements to education, training and promotion as men do. Since so many women workers today are less self-confident than men, they need assistance in becoming a more powerful group before employers. Some women are forced, against their will, to become insensitive and tough to be accepted.
Women have different backgrounds and experiences than men. The fact that experiences are different does not mean that they ought to be valueless. An essential measure of trade union policy must be to give men the opportunity to improve their sight and understanding of the employment situation of women.
Another view is that more attention must be paid to women’s working conditions. There is still extensive segregation of women and men in the labor market and the social role of women still carries less value than the more fixed, authoritative, hierarchic world of men. Since women will not, cannot, going to adopt the traditional male models, there will simply have to be a discussion of new ways of working. This will represent a great challenge and task for trade unions over the coming years.
In a society of equal opportunities, both men and women should be given the same chance of developing a satisfactory working life conducive to social development and good working conditions. Both men and women cannot go on finding fault with one another. Instead, it must be begun utilizing one another’s experiences and competencies. The results to be achieved from such cooperation will benefit all concerned.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
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