US: Headscarves & Discrimination

From One India:

Professor Sonia Ghumman from the University of Hawaii at Manoa Shidler College of Business has completed an intensive marketing research on the effects of Muslim women who wear hijabs (head scarves) in the U.S.

Ghumman's research examined the expectations that women who wear hijabs have regarding their employment opportunities.

"We surveyed 219 American Muslim women on their job seeking experience," said Ghumman.

"The findings reveal that Hijabis are not only aware of their stigma of being Muslim, but also expect to be treated differently in the workplace as a result of this stigma," she said.

The survey found 30 percent of women who wear hijabs were concerned about applying for work, 88 percent said they were not willing to take off their hijabs when applying for work.

63 percent said they were aware of incidences where women wearing hijabs were refused work, and 22 percent said they were personally denied work because of their attire.

France: Nannies Flex Their Muscles

From the New York Times:

A stroll through any Paris neighborhood will bear out a trend that has already made it into official statistics. More and more foreign-born women are pushing the baby strollers, caring for the bedridden, ironing the shirts. With an aging population, and one of the European Union’s highest birthrates, France needs help at home, particularly as budget cuts take a bite out of social services.

Meanwhile, at a time of economic slowdown, more immigrant women are willing to take jobs to help lift the income of their own families.

“These may not be beautiful jobs, but they are jobs that are in demand, and we have identified an increasing number of women willing to do them,” said Jean-Pierre Garson, head of the international migration unit at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Paris.

According to the O.E.C.D.’s latest migration report, the employment rate for foreign-born women in France has risen steadily in the past decade — from 44.2 percent in 1995 to 52.3 percent in 2008.

New Zealand: Women Losing Grip On Power

From Stuff.co.nz:

McGregor said interim results of the Census of Women's Participation showed that for the first time since the biennial survey began in 2004, the number of women in positions of power was going backwards.

Until recently New Zealand had a female prime minister, governor- general, attorney- general and a woman at the helm of Telecom, our largest publicly listed company.

McGregor said every other year there had been incremental improvements. "It means we have hit a plateau and are probably going to slide back," she said.

"New Zealand has always had a wonderful reputation - first of all with suffrage, but also with gender equality in a number of different areas, so that's why I'm worried about the signs of regression. We are at a critical stage for women's rights and gender equality. There's been a bit of complacency born out of the fact that there was a blip when we had a number of high-fliers."

McGregor believed it was time for the baby boomer generation to step aside, and accepted that view would cause controversy. "I do think there needs to be new and radical thinking. Younger women are there and I think we need to make space for them and for their voices and their forms of activism which are different from ours."

China: Gender Equility Through Education

From Xinhuanet News:

Visiting Senior Chinese legislator Chen Zhili on Saturday called for the promotion of gender equality through education.

Since the Fourth World Conference on Women, society has become more aware that the empowerment of women and the improvement of their status is critical to economic, political and social development, Chen said during a keynote speech at the UNESCO forum on gender equality in Athens.

Chen, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said China has witnessed great improvement in the status of women in recent years.

With the implementation of the Women Protection Law as well as other national policies on gender equality, the rights of Chinese women in the area of education, work and politics are guaranteed, Chen said.

Made In Dagenham

From the Independent:

They set out to fight for a fair deal for themselves; they ended up changing the world of work for generations of women. Now the 187 women machinists from Ford's flagship factory in Essex are to be celebrated in Made in Dagenham – starring Miranda Richardson and Bob Hoskins – which opens in cinemas across the UK this month. This weekend the man who worked behind the scenes as history was being made spoke, in a rare interview, to the IoS about the part he played in it.

When women machinists at Ford's Dagenham factory downed tools in 1968 in protest at the fact that they were classed as unskilled workers, while male colleagues doing the same job were thought to be skilled and paid much more for their efforts, they couldn't have imagined the ramifications.

The three-week strike brought production at the factory – which was the focus of the UK car industry at the time – to a standstill, and the dispute was resolved only when Barbara Castle was brought in to negotiate a settlement.

The Ford machinists went back to work after agreeing to be paid 92 per cent of male machinists' wages, and the strike speeded up the introduction of the Equal Pay Act of 1970, which made it illegal to have different pay scales for men and women.

 

Muslim Women in Kanodar

From the Times of India:

When Aalmin Mansuri of Kanodar village stood fifth in Banaskantha district, it did not come as a surprise for this 13,000-strong village on Ahmedabad-Delhi Highway, about 140 km from Ahmedabad. Aalmin is an example of the progressive outlook of the Shia Muslim community of the village, which comprises 90 per cent of the population. She scored 93.69 per cent marks.

There may be myths attached to women of this community across the country, but things are different in Kanodar. The women are considered equal to men in every respect. And, the village is close to achieving cent per cent literacy.

"Girls' education is the top priority in the village. If a girl is educated a generation is educated," said Banglawala. "We have been awarding cash prize of Rs 500 and a citation to the girl who tops in class XII in the village," she said.

"Our women are teachers, nurses, entrepreneurs and doctors," she said, adding that "My daughter was a medical student but after her marriage she settled in Canada," Banglawala said.

"Over 600 women in our village are earning members of the house," she said.

Birmingham UK: Payout for Council Women

From the Times Online:

About 5,000 women council workers have won a sex discrimination case that could cost taxpayers £600 million in payouts.

Female employees at Birmingham City Council, including careworkers, cleaners and clerical workers, were excluded from bonus payments offered to male colleagues on the same pay grade. In some cases, selective rises and incentives meant that men earned more than one and a half times the salary of women colleagues on the same level. Unions said that the women may be owed £30 million, while solicitors said the payouts could be up to £600 million.

Stefan Cross, whose law firm represented the women, said that the case was indicative of 20 years of sex discrimination in councils across the country.

MidEast Maids Unprotected

From Associated Press:

Reforms undertaken by governments in the Middle East to protect domestic workers from abuse are insufficient to shield women working as house maids from abuse and violence, Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Millions of mostly Asian women who work in countries like Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates remain at risk of human trafficking, forced labor, confinement and sexual violence, the New York-based group said.

Although several governments have made improvements for migrant domestic workers in the past five years, reform has been slow and incremental, Nisha Varia, the group's senior researcher of women's rights told The Associated Press.

Women working in private homes often work 20-hour days, face forced confinement and are sometimes physically and sexually abused, the report said.

Their passports are confiscated upon arrival, leaving employers in full control of their house maids' lives under what is known as a "sponsorship system."

The custom remains the biggest factor contributing to abuse, leaving women trapped in abusive situations since they are not allowed to legally change an employer, HRW said.

Korea: Female Unemployed

From Asia One Business:

Almost 200,000 unemployed women have college degrees, according to a report by the state-run statistics office.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of unemployed female college graduates was 196,000 last month, the highest number since 1999, when the office started to collect data on the education level of unemployed women.

This accounts for about 40 percent of the total number of women without jobs, the report said.

The number includes 107,000 women who graduated from a four-year college. The rest were two-year college graduates, the report said.

Saudia Arabia: Women Only Buses

From the Gulf Times:

A report has found that some 35% of Saudi women’s monthly income is spent on drivers and taxis as they are forbidden from driving and are largely excluded from the public transport system.

The survey, conducted by the Saudi Centre for Studies and Media (SCSM), is recommending the establishment of women-only buses in the kingdom and is currently being studied by Saudi Arabia’s legislative branch, the Majlis A-Shoura (Consultative Council).

The line of women-only buses, called Hafilati (“My Bus”), will employ male drivers.

“This is the first programme of its kind in Saudi Arabia to transport female passengers for a price that is fair and equal to that of men,” Jamal Banoun, director of the SCSM told The Media Line. “The primary aim of this is to provide protection for women against moral problems and sexual harassment that they sometimes face from taxi drivers.”

In recent years the kingdom has been undergoing gradual reforms and women are becoming a more significant part of the work force. “The need for transportation for women in Saudi Arabia hasn’t been given the same attention that it’s been given for men,” the report read. “Men have options such as driving a car and other modes of transport that facilitate their movement whenever they want. But the Saudi woman is limited in her options in using transportation.”

Saudi Arabia is not the first Middle Eastern country to consider creating a segregated transportation system and the idea is not always welcomed by rights activists. In Cairo’s subway system, the fourth and fifth carriages are reserved exclusively for women. Also, women-only taxis, which are both driven by women and serve women, are either operating, or being discussed, in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Dubai and Jordan. Women-for-women taxis are currently not an option in Saudi Arabia where women cannot take the wheel.

Trapped: 300 Malayali Women

From Sahil Online:

Almost 300 Malayali women who have been recruited illegally to Gulf countries as housemaids and forced into immoral activities are trapped in the Gulf countries.

According to a News portal of Kerala, Souda of Pathanamthitta and Ahamed of Kasargod together run the sex racket in UAE. People came to know about the sex racket when some traumatic stories were revealed by a woman, who moved the Kerala High Court.

The woman approached the court demanding an officer not less than the rank of an IG to probe the case. The plea was considered by a division bench of Acting Chief Justice P R Raman and Justice C N Ramachandran Nair.

The portal said in his report that the agents lure women from poor families promising them jobs in Gulf countries. A small amount would be given to their families after considering their poor financial condition. The passports have to be surrendered once you reach Gulf. The women can contact their parents only in the presence of these agents.

Central America: The Informal Economy

From IPS News:

According to the third regional report on the labour market in Central America and the Dominican Republic produced by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Central American Integration System (SICA), 64 percent of women in the labour force in the region work in the informal sector, compared to 50 percent of men in the workforce.

Of the women in the workforce in Guatemala, 73 percent are in the informal economy, compared to 64 percent in El Salvador and 45 percent in Costa Rica, according to the ILO/SICA study, which defines the informal sector as including the self-employed, domestic workers and unregulated microenterprise.

Although the number of women in the labour force has been growing faster than the number of men since 2001, poverty, lack of education and discrimination complicate the employment outlook for women in Central America, says the study, which was released in October 2009.

In Central America, over 38 percent of the workforce have not completed primary school and 73 percent have less than a complete secondary school education, says the ILO/SICA report. Of the 20 million people in the labour force in the region, 60 percent are unskilled, it adds.

This region of 43 million people is one of the most unequal areas in the world, with half of the population living in poverty, according to international bodies.

And against that backdrop of inequality, women face fewer employment opportunities than men, earn less than men in every area, especially manufacturing, and have higher unemployment rates than men.

Informal Economy - street vendors, craftmakers, self-employed, domestic workers and unregulated microenterprise.

National Women's Alliance: Women in the Workplace

From ABC News:

The National Women's Alliance is calling on the federal and state governments to remove the barriers for women wanting to return to work after caring for children or others.

A new report called Barriers to Women's Employment found that women going back to work do not have the same access to job finding services as unemployed people on welfare.

Report author Marie Coleman says while more women are working now than 60 years ago, many are not eligible for assistance with fees to retrain and also struggle with inflexible work hours and child care.

She says governments are not making enough of an effort to meet the specific needs of those women.

"I would think the political party that went to the next election with a really well-tailored program that would provide for before and after school [care], and school holiday programs, would be greeted with thunderous applause by most Australian working women," she said.

Pakistan: Benazir Income Support Programme

From the Daily Times:

Waseela-e-Haq, a scheme of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) initiated by the PPP government, will help alleviate poverty and empower poor women and the vulnerable section of the society.

Benazir Income Support Programme Chairperson Farzana Raja said this while addressing a seminar titled “BISP technology-based governance for poverty alleviation and women empowerment” here on Thursday.

She expressed the hope that Waseela-e-Haq programme would create employment opportunities for more women.

Bahrain: Jobs For Women

From Gulf Daily News:

MORE than 5,800 job vacancies in the public and private sector will be offered to unemployed Bahraini women at a job and training exhibition opening on Monday.

Around 3,000 unemployed women have been invited to attend the event, which is the first of its kind in Bahrain. The minimum wage offered will be BD400 for university graduates and BD250 for undergraduates.

The Job and Training Exhibition for Unemployed Bahraini Women is being held under patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, wife of His Majesty King Hamad and the chairwoman of the Supreme Council for Women.

Iran: No Single Women In Oil & Gas

From AFP:

Iran has barred single women from working for a state firm that operates a huge gas field and petrochemical plants on the shores of the Gulf, the Fars news agency reported on Monday.

"Oil Minister (Masoud Mirkazemi) has emphasised that single women should not be present in Assalouyeh," the deputy director of the Pars Special Economic Energy Zone Company, Pirouz Mousavi, said.

Mousavi did not elaborate on whether any women had yet been laid off as a result of the order.

More than 18 months ago, Iranian newspapers carried an instruction by the company requiring that "single employees start creating a family."

"As being married is one of the criteria of employment, we are announcing for the last time that all female and male colleagues have until September 21 to go ahead with this important and moral religious duty," the instruction said.

Saudi University Breaks New Ground

From the Christian Science Monitor:

For the first time in Saudi Arabia’s history, men attending a university north of Jeddah will have special classmates – women.

The conservative country unveiled on Wednesday its first ever fully coed university, the King Abdullah Science and Technology University (KAUST). In the past, women in the notoriously gender restrictive kingdom were only allowed to take classes separately from men.

The inauguration of KAUST is meant to signal two important developments: a lauded, if politically volatile, softening of hard-line rules, and the kingdom’s rising ambitions of being a hub of scientific learning. Both aims, Saudi Arabia’s rulers hope, will help blunt the impact of extremism.

Nigeria: Empowering Women

From allAfrica:

The wife of the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Hajiya Zainab Adamu Aliero has advocated for the empowerment of women because of the crucial role they play in family settings.

Mrs. Aliero stated this on Monday at Kuje Area Council, in continuation of her visit to the six area councils of the FCT in order to flag off the skills acquisition training programme for the less privileged.

She said the training programme will provide a platform to help address the thorny issue of poverty, especially at the grass root level, adding that it will also help the rural dwellers develop skills that will help them become self employed.