Jerusalem24 – From gender discrimination to lack of private sector opportunity, Palestinian women face myriad obstacles in the labor market.
Acknowledging, fairly evaluating the worth of all the work undertaken by women, and investing in it as a vital part of the economy, are all steps and solutions explored during “Valuing Women’s Work” Conference on 22 March in Tel Al-Hawa in Gaza, bringing together local and international experts in partnership with Oxfam, the United Nations Women’s Commission, GIZ, CARE International, and partner civil society institutions.
“If you look back on the statistics about the current situation of women in the Palestinian work force, we can see that just 19% of the women are joining the Palestinian work force,” the director of the Economic Justice Program at Oxfam in Gaza, Mahmoud Al-Saqqa, tells Jerusalem24.
“The main aim, or the message of the conference, is about the value of women’s work. All women’s work deserves to be recognized.”
From policy to implementation
Government, private sector and employer policies and practices tend to be male-biased, discriminatory, and not inclusive of women workers.
“The beliefs and the ideas about the capacity and the contribution of women, […] policies and practices in the private and governmental sectors… all these things are limiting the proper participation of women in different sectors, especially in the Palestinian economic system,” Al-Saqqa explains.
So how do we achieve gender equality, exactly?
According to Al-Saqqa, by working to enact inclusive policies and practices in order to find solutions to the most common issues that women face in the labor market in Palestine, including the pay gap; creating a safe work environment for all; and promoting representation of women in leadership positions.
Al-Saqqa points to two levels which must be addressed: first, the policy – the public and private sector recognizing the issues and coming up with legal, administrative and political remedies – and second, of course, the implementation.
Domestic labor: Unpaid, unrecognized
In the care economy, Palestinian women overwhelmingly carry the burden for unpaid care and domestic work, which in addition to being neither recognized nor remunerated, limits their ability to join the workforce and be financially independent.
Al-Saqqa says household work is “invisible and undervalued”.
Part of valuing women’s labor – both paid and unpaid – is to highlight and recognize this labor, which (currently) is “not considered part of the economy.”
Listen to the full interview on Vibes.
https://soundcloud.com/24fmpalestine/vibes-mahmoud-23-3-23?si=cf1fc6c439b547f2bfdc88667bb30f39
