Title:
Press Release-Workplaces need to mainstream gender concerns
Workplaces need to mainstream gender concerns
New Delhi, April 7, 2008: Are women adequately represented in the workplace? Is sexual harassment an issue in the workplace? Do women and men have certain abilities that are suited to certain kinds of jobs? Around these myths and issues regarding women’s and men’s participation in the workplace, discussions were held at the book release of a manual titled Engendering Workplaces: Framework for a Gender Policy by PRIA, in collaboration with the Gender Community-UN Solution Exchange on the 7th of April.
Organisations exist in the real work and as such mirror all the traditional and orthodox conceptions regarding gender roles and relations. Since the start of the organised workplace, men have been represented in more numbers than women and as a result workplaces have largely catered to the needs of men. According to the National Human Development Report 2001 the percentage of women in the labour force in urban areas in 1999-2000 was 24.6 per cent as compared to 78.6 per cent for men. Many organisations have attempted different practices to include women in the workplace but they have not been entirely successful. Women exist in the workplace but are still missing from positions of leadership and authority in organisations both big and small. The workplace now needs to address how systems, which support both men and women, can be improved. The manual is an attempt to do so. It stresses the need to mainstream gender within their workplace.
Intended for use primarily within the voluntary sector, this manual is designed for all organisations that wish to mainstream gender within their organisations, both at an administrative as well as a programmatic level. The manual has three main sections. Briefly touching upon the history and the challenges to women’s concerns in the public sphere, the first section provides the significance of a Gender Policy. The second section provides practical and workable recommendations to incorporating gender concerns through a Gender Policy within the organisational structure, its culture, systems and policies. The third section then talks about the actual implementation of the Gender Policy.
As all organisations value the work and contributions of women in the process of development and their importance in the workplace, efforts must be made to sustain their presence and maximise their potential. At the same time, there is a need to include men as partners, and not competitors, in these processes of change and adaptation
The book release brought together on a platform about 70 members of grassroots organisations, UN representatives and presence from the corporate sector. Those who attended the book release have appreciated the manual for the issues that it has highlighted. And what some have found interesting is that for a change the manual not only spoke of the problems but also provided workable solutions to them
Dr Syeeda Hameed, Member, Planning Commission, remarked, “The workplace in the Indian context is still dominated by men With the increasing presence of women in the workforce, there is a need to create processes within workplaces to cater to the needs of women to bring out their potential. Only then would equality be achieved.”
“Mainstreaming gender institutionally is very important but the biggest challenge lies in implementing these changes and sustaining them. Changing organizational culture and practices requires parallel changes in individual attitude and orientation. Qualified and educated, professionals often feel that they know everything about the two sexes working together. This implies significant unlearning in order to attain gender sensitisation. We need to create mechanisms that support unlearning to happen, though it’s a difficult process. Gender may not make bottom-line sense but makes well being sense for the employees,” says Dr Rajesh Tandon, President, PRIA
Martha Farrell, Director, PRIA, adds, “Workplaces are reflections of society with the same biases and discrimination. Organisations also play a role towards social transformation. Individuals spend roughly 50 per cent of their waking hours within the workplace. For growth and development of the organization and thereby society, the needs of both in the workplace have to be addressed.”
About Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA)
PRIA came into existence in 1982 to work towards the promotion of policies, institutions and capacities that strengthen voices and participation against the marginalisation of communities. The idea is to improve their socio-economic status through democratic governance. PRIA’s mission is to reach out, through such governance, to everyone in society and to ease their participation in the governance process.
