Drawing a fair line

Why is gender equality slow-paced in Sri Lanka?

DR MATHU H LIYANAGE

Education is a tool of empowerment for women coming from a rural and less privileged background as it helps rectify wage and income imbalances when they are engaged in employment which are dominated by their male counterparts

Social justice poses problems for women working in the city where both husband and wife are employed, in the absence of well-run and affordable childcare centres to look after the children while they are at work.

It also calls for husband’s participation in sharing of household work necessarily involving a change of role of men. The absence of mandatory paid maternal and paternal leave, to be taken alternatively at childbirth, as in most developed countries, will intensify the complexity of the problem.

In suburban and rural areas, this problem may be mitigated to a great extent by the assistance of members of extended families, a system that is fast eroding. Gender equality is incomplete if it does not address the economic issues involved - the other side of the coin.

In developing countries such as Sri Lanka, average women obtain lower levels of education than men resulting in less productivity and income than their male counterparts.

Education

This has been partly solved by the free education system, the establishment of Central Schools and Universities in most districts to bring education within the reach of those living in urban, suburban areas and rural villages, narrowing the gap in education and employment opportunities between the rich and the poor and men and women.

While the gender factor restricts women’s access to employment and resources, it certainly creates economic inefficiencies.

The gender wage gap implies an inefficient allocation of labour and skewed investment in human capital which is detriment to women.

Most of these inequalities are stemming from historical, cultural and traditional societal mores.

It is evident that trade expansion in recent years has increased job opportunities for women mainly in clothing and garment industries and in ceramics.

In 2008, the textile industry earned $3.5 billion and found employment for 250,000 persons, mainly young women from rural areas.

The other significant source was the employment of women in the Middle East and a few other countries as housemaids or domestic aides.

Contribution to economy

The number of women so employed in 1996 was 110,479, which increased to 125, 493 in 2005 with a slight decrease in 2007 that accounted for 102,176, according to the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau.

The remittances from Middle East countries in 1996 were Rs 26,728 million that increased to Rs 160,502 million in 2007 (provisional).

This has resulted in women having greater access to income and has changed their position in the society, raising their status, winning greater independence and gaining more control over household resources and management.

Narrowing wage gap

It is possible that an increase in unskilled labour-intensive exports such as clothing, garment industries and ceramics may tend to increase the demand for lower-skilled labour, narrowing the gender wage gap as the demand tends to increase the wages of unskilled workers, provided the supply remains constant, relative to the wages of the skilled since women are employed in lower- skilled and lower- paid jobs than men.

In the long run, it may be possible for export-oriented firms to adopt cost-cutting techniques by the use of wage differential as a tool.

The bargaining power of skilled workers will rise while unskilled workers may not, resulting in loss of jobs and widening the gender and wage gap.

To avert such a situation, it is the Government duty to set up technical colleges and launch trade apprentice schemes across the country to train both men and women in various trades to fit into the more competitive, integrated global economy.