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Module IV
Policy Responses for Decent Work
2. What can ministries of labour do
to advance gender equality
Because the PRSP process can tend to emphasize financial or planning aspects, labour
ministries may find themselves removed from economic and social policy-making on
poverty reduction. This problem needs to be addressed.
There is a second issue, in relation to government engagement with women’s interests in
the world of work. Many government officials hold the view that the concerns of
unorganized workers or of small employers (both groups where women may be
over-represented) do not fall within the domain of the formal structures of institutional
decision-making. Sometimes women’s units or other specialist government agencies
concerned with gender issues are not aware of the work of the ILO in poverty reduction;
the units themselves may not be considered relevant to issues relating to work.
Ministries of labour advance gender equality if they:
build capacity on gender issues, and help to ensure that gender issues are given
adequate attention during decision-making processes, including during all stages of
the PRSP process;
integrate the concerns and demands of the large numbers of poor working women
who remain at the margins of the labour market. These may be self-employed
women, non-wage agricultural workers, women in casual and informal work, women
in small business schemes, and women in hidden or unpaid care work;
enhance the government’s role and obligations in the promotion and protection of
core labour standards.
3. How can trade unions promote gender equality
The PRSP process provides workers’ organizations with opportunities to advance gender
equality issues. These organizations are legitimate representatives of individual and
collective demands for basic workers’ and human rights.
Because equality is a core human right, workers’ organizations need to integrate gender
equality as a living principle in their own policies and structures. Gender equality may take
various forms: balanced membership and leadership positions for women; evidence of a
commitment to advance the gender interests of their members; joint actions with civil
society organizations and other bodies advocating gender equality; data broken down by
sex; campaigns to recruit women and to enhance their leadership capacity; negotiation of
policies to eliminate discrimination on the basis of gender. Bipartite, tripartite or other
appropriate forms of negotiation can all be used as ways of incorporating gender
concerns.
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