Women urged to find balance
UNITED Nations Under-Secretary-General, UN Women Executive Director Madame Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, last Tuesday encouraged women to find the balance in their life, instead of making sacrifices.
UNITED Nations Under-Secretary-General, UN Women Executive Director Madame Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, last Tuesday encouraged women to find the balance in their life, instead of making sacrifices.
Speaking at the UWI Leads public discussion ‘Women’s Empowerment Through Leadership’ at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge, Mlambo-Ngcuka said as long as we have the kind of inequality in society for women to be homemakers and lead outside the home, there will always be a sacrifice.
But, she said, “Don’t sacrifice your personal life for work.”
“If I was to relive [my life], I wouldn’t sacrifice my children. Life is about making memories. Society should ultimately facilitate that balance. It is not about one part of society over the other, it’s about drawing on the strengths of both. It is not women who must change, it is society that must change,” she said.
Mlambo-Ngcuka was in Jamaica and the Caribbean for the first time to join in the celebration of the Government’s ratification of ILO Convention 189 – Domestic Workers Convention.
During this time she joined with the president and members of the Jamaica Household Workers Union for a celebratory walk at Emancipation Park, where she lauded the efforts of the Government and called for the ratification to be part of a bigger revolution.
“This convention protects domestic workers and ensures they receive decent wages and protects them from sexual harassment. We want to eliminate unpaid care work, but we also want to address care work that is underpaid. So this is a piece of a much bigger revolution that we hope the next century will be about,” she said.
“We want the next century to be about recognising that there isn’t men’s work or women’s work…that disabled people have their own [place] in society, that one’s sexual orientation does not determine who you are or what you can do. So as we do this, we must just know that this is a ripple, so that domestic workers are right in the centre.”
Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange said the ratification promotes the achievement of social justice and fosters an appreciation and recognition of the pivotal role of household workers.
She said as the product of a household worker, she understands that the ratification recognises and promotes household workers’ pivotal role to regional and global economy, and as a result she will remain committed to ensuring that a decent work agenda is realised.
“We are committed to ensuring that household workers get the recognition, support and strengthening that they deserve. We are committed to ensuring that household workers get the support to make a meaningful contribution to national development,” she said.
“Statistics indicate that worldwide there are 53 million people who are domestic workers. Eighty-three per cent of the estimated 53 million workers are said to be women. Second to Asia, the Caribbean and Latin American region accounts for 37.3 per cent of the domestic workers labour force. More than 90 per cent of the domestic workers in the Caribbean and Latin America are women. Due to the nature of their work, household workers are exposed to additional risks. These risks include increased vulnerability to sexual violence and other forms of abuse,” Grange said.
She added that she will continue to celebrate the ratification and reinforce Government’s commitment to the work.
