Men predominantly lead Pakistan’s trade unions, although they do have women as rank-and-file members and also in their executive committees. However, there have been an abysmal number of women leaders. Mainly, Kaneez Fatima of the Karachi Shipyard Workers Union, (late) Gulzar Begum of the Pakistan Steel Mills Union, Farida Zaheer of the Pakistan National Textile Leather Garment & General Federation, and Zehra Khan of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation come to mind.
Men predominantly lead Pakistan’s trade unions, although they do have women as rank-and-file members and also in their executive committees. However, there have been an abysmal number of women leaders. Mainly, Kaneez Fatima of the Karachi Shipyard Workers Union, (late) Gulzar Begum of the Pakistan Steel Mills Union, Farida Zaheer of the Pakistan National Textile Leather Garment & General Federation, and Zehra Khan of the Home-Based Women Workers Federation come to mind.
Even so, women labour leaders have led or played a prominent role in agitations, some went to jail, some have been beaten up and hospitalized, and it is said that many made financial and personal sacrifices. But the sad fact is there has been an insufficient recognition of women’s contributions in trade unions.
Today, less than two per cent of workers in Pakistan are unionized and the downslide continues. The threat of closures of enterprises, the widespread acceptance of contract labour, employers discouraging unionization, and the overarching apathy of workers to form or participate in trade union activities, have been the formidable reasons for this pathetic low figure.
This depressing reality should have enabled women activists in trade unions to campaign for their full inclusion in union activities and demonstrate their importance. Unfortunately, women have not been able to make inroads in the rather patriarchal nature of the trade union movement. There has been a growing realization that if the trade union movement in Pakistan is to regain its strength, it must make a paradigm shift to include women. A woman social activist says that: "Even today, men in trade unions do not want women to have equal wages or power”.
According to a woman trade unionist, 80 per cent of the men in the trade union movement still do not trust women’s participation in collective bargaining. The blatant wage discrimination on gender lines commonly practised in the trade union movement has confined workers to just labour. Workers are people, and when they are women, there are more problems than just those that can be solved through collective bargaining. Talking of strategies to strengthen the role of women in the trade union movement is of crucial importance.
Women can preserve separate spaces for themselves within the larger milieu of the union as such exclusive space will help foster women’s leadership. Gender equality in unions has always been an uphill battle for women. A moderate labour leader warned that: “We will run out of quality leaders if we don’t double the pool by preparing women and youth to lead their unions.”
Existing labour laws make no distinction between men and women when it comes to their rights. Article 25 of the constitution of Pakistan ensures that all citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law. There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex. Many countries ensure that both women and men get equal pay for work of equal value. Yet, the gender gap still remains wide with the glass ceiling almost intact and equality in the world of work still an illusion for women.
The majority of women have a daily workload coping with their economic, social and domestic roles. Domestic work is still considered a woman’s function, whether she is in paid employment or not. Much of the discrimination and violence against women are rooted in inherited societal customs and traditions that are sexist, biased and male-controlled. Poverty, unemployment, and rampant inflation drove more and more women into vulnerable economic activities, mostly in the informal sector.
In the supply chain outsourcing enterprises, which have proliferated and are continuing to grow, to bring down costs entrepreneurs often force women to work long hours for minimum piece-rate wages and mostly without overtime pay. Employers recognize that in a highly competitive job market, prospects available to women are subject to the relative cost of women’s emoluments.
The ILO enacted specific conventions and recommendations on the protection of the role and maternal function of women and the promotion of equality of opportunity and the handling of women in accordance with the changing needs of people. For example: Convention 89 (Night Work), Convention 45 (Underground Work), Conventions 103 and 183 (Maternity Protection), Conventions 100 and 111 (Discrimination and Equal Remuneration and Discrimination in Employment), and Convention 190 (Harassment and Violence in the World of Work).
According to the ILO, "Equality in the world of work is still out of reach" for women. "Although more women are working today and their participation in employment has grown during the last three decades, this explosive growth hasn’t been accompanied by true socio-economic empowerment nor has it led to equal pay for work of equal value nor balanced benefits which would make women equal to men across nearly all occupations".
Several obstacles often make it difficult for women to get involved in union leadership. One qualitative study of women union activists, by Amy Caiazza of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, identified six barriers that women face in union work: women experience difficulty making room for the time demands of union leadership, especially given their competing family obligations; women and people of different ethnicities have an acute fear of retribution by employers; few women serve at the top of union leadership, where they could serve as role models to other women activists; women express discomfort with public authority based on an understanding that this is not a female role; women are not aware of how union leadership may benefit their lives as workers; and unions place inadequate emphasis on the priorities and concerns of women.
The report also identified seven strategies for promoting women’s leadership within unions. Unions can highlight the importance of women’s contributions; provide training on effective ways to mobilize women; encourage and support more women in leadership positions, both nationally and locally; create and strengthen mentoring programmes for women; provide dedicated space for women to voice their concerns; address women’s priorities by using visualizations and language that reflects their experiences; and provide flexible options for involvement by finding creative times and places to meet and providing supports such as childcare.
The writer is a former president of the Employers Federation of Pakistan.
Poster photo courtesy: ACTU & CAGEO
