Supporting a gender-equal world today for a sustainable tomorrow

By Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya

Conversations around issues faced by women in various spheres of life increase in frequency in March, due to the commemoration of International Women’s Day on 8 March. The theme this year is gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow and a recent discussion hosted by the United Nations (UN) together with the UN Global Compact Network Sri Lanka unpacked gender biases within formal places of power and influence in Sri Lanka.

The discussion focused on political and economic spheres in particular, in the context of broader ground-level analysis. 

Touching on the upcoming Cooperation Framework, UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Hanaa Singer-Hamdy said the UN has zoomed in and highlights the issue of gender, making it a critical area of intervention. This will be the UN country program for the next five years. “Research shows that this country has the potential to add $ 20 billion to its GDP if gender parity is addressed and the potential to increase its economic growth trajectory by about 14%. However, to achieve this, the country needs to address the institutional and structural bias that perpetrates this gender stereotyping and biases resulting in gender-based violence,” Singer-Hamdy said.

She added that women being underrepresented and prevented from engaging fully in the economic, political and social spheres will even further this problem.

The discussion that followed was between Unilever Sri Lanka Chairperson Hajar Alafifi, Brandix Group Chief Officer Ishan Dantanarayana, National Forum Against Gender Based Violence Co-Chair Gowthaman Balachandran, and Department of National Planning Additional Director General Shiranthi Rathnayake. The panel was moderated by Representative for Sri Lanka and Country Director for The Maldives UNFPA Kunle Adeniyi.

Recognising biases

One of the steps that we must take towards breaking the bias is actually identifying and acknowledging the biases we face. These biases may be present in society, private sectors, the State sector and so on.

“We are not an island. We are not an oasis. So the first point we would be advised to recognise is that all the biases and prejudices that are characteristic of our society, our very patriarchal society, seeps in various ways,” National Forum Against Gender Based Violence Co-Chair Gowthaman Balachandran said, adding that civil society is not immune to approaching the question of bias as compartmentalised in various segments.

“Many in civil society, men and women who work hard on women’s rights issues, empowerment, gender discriminatory laws, play a crucial, critical role. But that does not give us any immunity in terms of how we deal with women in our workplaces,” he went on to say.

Addressing the confusion between equity and equality, Gowthaman questioned how spaces and processes are organised in the workplace while also taking into consideration the enormous workload a woman faces. He explained that these must be taken into consideration when it comes to work conditions and performance appraisal processes.

There is also a question of how we perceive and label feminism, a word that tends to have negative connotations due to misconceptions.

“Feminism, not only in the Sri Lankan civil society context, but also in wider society, is kind of equivalent to the other f word in the Sri Lankan discourse, which is federalism,” Gowthaman said.

When are biases dangerous?

The theme of the discussion was breaking the bias for a sustainable tomorrow and Unilever Sri Lanka Chairperson Hajar Alafifi explained the different biases faced by women and how these affect their performance in the workplace.

“Conformity bias means that when I hire women, why they do not accelerate in the pyramid is because they want to be like a man. They want to conform to how the men behave,” Alafifi said, adding that women then feel demotivated and disengaged because they do not bring their true self to the workplace.

Due to the expectation bias, women accept it when they are patronised by a man. This is a result of being brought up in a very patriarchal society and creates relationships where the woman is always seen as inferior to men.

There are also implicit biases that occur unintentionally or automatically.

“Bias is okay. We are biased towards our family, towards our kids, etc. Biases are dangerous when they hold us from progressing society,” Alafifi went on to say.

Adding that topics like this should not take a backseat given the issues the country is currently facing, Alafifi said, “We truly believe that society will progress when everyone is given an equitable chance.”

Role of the government

“Relationships with the government are not always cordial. There are things we have separate opinions about,” Gowthaman said, adding that women’s rights, however, is an area that both society and the government sector are focused on.

According to Department of National Planning Additional Director General Shiranthi Rathnayake, legal reform is necessary to increase female labour force participation in the country. These policy-level changes should enable the sharing of caregiving and household responsibilities, support school to work transition for young women, and provide leadership training and professional development.

“Compared to the high achievement of the other socioeconomic indexes, when it comes to women’s labour force participation, we are low compared to the other countries,” Rathnayake said, adding that national-level policy intervention is required to create favourable working conditions for women.

This is in addition to public sectors ensuring greater gender parity.

Explaining the challenges faced when increasing female labour force participation, Rathnayake said it was a matter of both supply and demand. In terms of supply, one could look at factors like age, educational attainment, and employment, while demand considers factors like income inequality, discrimination, quality and quantity of jobs, and a difference in employment opportunities available to women.

“Within the service sector, women employment mainly focuses on education and health sectors but other sectors are male dominated. We have to think about how to bring in the capacity to be employed in a large number in any occupational category, in addition to education and health,” Rathnayake added.

In terms of removing the obstacles women face when participating in the workforce, Rathnayake explained that we need to develop and provide affordable, high-quality child care and elderly care. Opportunities for part-time work, reviewing current labour laws, and introducing paternity leave in addition to maternity leave are other areas that the country needs to focus on.

Breaking the bias within organisations

As Rathnayake explained, national-level policy intervention is crucial. However, it is also important that private sector organisations create spaces that encourage female labour participation. This is especially important in sectors like the apparel industry, which has a large female workforce.

“If we go back a couple of years in the apparel industry, this large female workforce was called “Juki girls” or machine operators. So we wanted to give them dignity in the role,” Brandix Group Chief Officer Ishan Dantanarayana said, adding that this was done in different ways, including a change in designation from machine operator to production associate.

“In the apparel industry, mechanics were always men. There are 60,000 employees in Sri Lanka, 94% female,” he said, adding that female workers were given the opportunity to train as mechanics as well, after receiving a favourable response from the female workforce.

“In terms of being respected, you have to know your rights,” Dantanarayana went on to say, explaining that a model was created to teach employees their rights. This led to the need for a policy to deal with grievances voiced by employees.

At Unilever Sri Lanka, menstrual leave has now been introduced. “Our maternity and paternity leave is higher than what is stated by the government because we want to make sure that women do not see becoming a mom as a barrier,” Alafifi said.

In terms of dealing with harassment in the workplace, Gowthaman said there is a need for safe spaces within which people can raise concerns and issues as well as solution processes when dealing with these incidents.

“But most critical is how you close the loop when the perpetrator or issue concerned comes from above,” he added. This would require a strong trade union, external observers, or intervention from the relevant federations and chambers.

“Unless we get power structures in a manner in which it balances out and gives an equal space, it does not add to much. The rest is platitude. The rest is CSR,” Gowthaman stressed.

Pix by Upul Abayasekara