KAMPALA – Stakeholders have called on men to evenly participate in doing house chores in order to enable women better engage in the labor market.
During the stakeholders’ dialogue on Thursday, they noted that unequal allocation of Unpaid Care Work (UCW) between men and women remains a major limitation to women’s participation in the labor market.
Forum for Women in Democracy – FOWODE and Ace Policy Research Institute (APRI) in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Labor, and (MGLSD) with funding from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) are implementing a 3-years project titled “Supporting Parenting Care Corners” in markets to reduce Unpaid Care Work for vulnerable businesswomen in Uganda.
According to them, the Covid-19 pandemic led to reversals in many forms of inequality between men and women which calls for efforts to rebuild the economy, not forgetting the factors that underpin these inequalities.
Ms. Patricia Munabi – Executive Director, FOWODE noted that despite the attainment of substantial in women’s leadership and economic empowerment, Uganda continues to face gender inequality in leadership and economic empowerment and the resultant outcomes.
“Women and girls spend more time on domestic and care work which is valued to be 39% and 10% respectively, of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which can contribute more to the economy than manufacturing, commerce or transportation sectors, according to the ‘Women’s economic empowerment in the changing work Report of the Secretary-General, December 2016.”
She says that when women are economically empowered, it has a ripple effect on their families and communities and also enhances their ability to participate in leadership and in governance processes
She called on the country to leverage its relatively high female labour force participation, “whose contribution, if the burden of care work is lightened can cause a significant growth in the GDP of the country’s economy.”
Ms. Munabi blamed gender disparities on the cultural and religious norms, beliefs, and practices that reinforce the unequal allocation of unpaid care work between men and women, which continues to limit women’s involvement in more skilled and better-paid jobs and sectors.
“It’s important to note that women’s economic empowerment is not only a move toward the economic development of a country but also a sustainable and smart way of achieving gender equality and leaving no one behind.”
Dr. Paulina Chiwangu, Country Representative, UN Women Uganda re-echoed the call for Sustainable Development Goal 5 which pertains to recognizing and valuing unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies, and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and family as nationally appropriate.
She says that investment in the care economy can yield not only progress towards gender equality and women’s empowerment but also creates inclusive growth and human development by addressing the interlinked issues of poverty, health, education decent work and gender equality.
According to the UBOS survey 2019, men spent 5.3 hours on productive work compared to their women counterparts who spent only 3.4 hours whereas women spent 6.6 hours on unpaid work than men at 5.1 hours.
Just like Munabi, Dr. Chiwangu attributed the challenge to discriminatory social norms that continue to undermine women in care-linked businesses and workplace settings.
“So, for example, market women, care assistants in health units, and women in domestic care must deal with sexual harassment.”
She encouraged all the stakeholders to continue investing in social norms, and change campaigns, via local and national media, including social media campaigns.
Dr. Chiwangu also called for the promotion of positive masculinities in local communities for incremental shifts in harmful social norms, driving gender inequality and violence against women and girls.
She also emphasized positive male engagement in quite a number of campaigns, which can help to bring change in your communities.
Peace Mutuuzo – the Minister of State for Gender and Culture said that in Uganda, cultural beliefs, norms and practices interspersed with religion have allocated a greater share of unpaid care work to women.
Represented by Minister of State for Disability Affairs, Hellen Asamo, she noted that whereas unpaid care work is essential for human well-being, it can greatly reduce productive employment and earnings, education attainment, mobility, health and participation in development initiatives including political and community initiatives and sleep for both women and girls.
She, however, noted that the government has remained steadfast in its quest of gender equality, and women’s economic empowerment.
“Indeed there have been significant gains in the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality during the last 25 years. Uganda has incorporated the principles and provisions of global and regional communities’ commitments on Uganda as human rights as national legal and policy frameworks, as well as setting up institutional mechanisms to facilitate their implementation across sectors.”
“The 1995 constitution provides the overall legal framework to promote women’s rights and gender equality and has informed several legal and policy developments. The government of Uganda has put in place that are key for the promotion of women’s rights and gender equality, in particular,” she added.
She called for deliberate interventions to harness the existing opportunities to accelerate the intergenerational positive transformation towards women’s empowerment and gender equality.
Mutuuzo revealed that the government with funding from the World Bank is implementing the generating growth opportunities and productivity for women enterprise projects – aimed at increasing access to entrepreneurship services that enable women entrepreneurs to grow their enterprises to targeted locations including refugee hosting districts.
“The project also aims to holistically tap on some of the structural barriers hindering the growth of women-owned businesses including those related to financial inclusion, business development services, infrastructure, community mobilization, and mindset change to ensure the effective participation of women in the development process.”
