Changing role of women

The Zonta Club 111 of Colombo hosted a panel discussion on ‘The Changing Role of Women in Today’s Society’ on 16 March, which brought together a host of talented women and men to discuss the various roles that women can hold in society and what changes are needed to empower them and see more women in politics and other spheres of business.

The panel included Sharmini Boyle, Chief Editor of Young Asia Television as the negotiator; Hiran Cooray, Chairman, Jetwing Group; Shanti Sachithanandam, Chairperson, Viluthu-Sri Lanka; Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives; Shyamala Gomez, Gender Advisor, United Nations; and Manthri Perera, Past District Governor, Zonta District 25.

The Chief Guest was Zontian Naheed Moyeen and the welcome address was given by Zontian Shehara Rajapakse.

Among the important facts brought up during the discussion was the importance of working together to help more women enter the workforce and even politics. What is needed is a 50-50 contribution from both men and women to achieve the goals of seeing more women working and making a difference.

Supporting working women

If women are to come out and work in politics and other areas of business, there has to be help from their husbands, fathers or brothers in maintaining and looking after the home and children.

Teaching both girls and boys the importance of equality and fairness is crucial and should start first in their homes before they enter school and work, so that it will create an equal playing field in their home and work where the males and females are working together and sharing responsibilities of the home and work side by side.

As much as women would like to come out to work, one of the main factors not allowing this is because of their home demands and bringing up their children.

As important as the role of a mother is, she can only do so much, and to help her work outside the home and in society, she needs support and help from her family and society so that by going out to work she does not neglect other aspects of her life.

To achieve such a situation, changes are needed to help empower women which are suitable for them and their families. Most important is the support and assistance that they get from their immediate families.

Small steps like this will allow more women to leave home to work and may in time see equal contribution of men and women in the home, business and politics arenas. Sri Lanka boasts equal literacy rates for both women and men but there are areas where development and change is not taking place at all or taking place at a very slow pace.

However, it is important to note that in Sri Lanka we have seen changes taking place with increasing numbers of women entering public life and other activities and even making a mark in their chosen field.

Sri Lanka is proud to have the world’s first women prime minister but there is only 4.8 per cent women in Parliament today; the figure was the same in 1948. There are some areas where changes are just not taking place.

Laws affecting women

Shyamala Gomez, Gender Advisor, United Nations, speaking on the laws affecting women stated that certain laws had been changed to enable women to participate more but that not many laws had been changed.

“We have laws on equality and non-discrimination and these are good,” she said, adding however that where problems arise is in their implementation.

She highlighted that the UN is working with private sector companies to come up with policies on sexual harassment at the work place, emphasising that such policies were needed in the private sector.

Gomez spoke on the sentences for sexual harassment and that people may not be aware that the sentence for such harassment is five years.

“We also have many criminal laws which are very progressive,” she noted, pointing out that other areas covered by certain laws are maternity leave, working conditions, working hours and night work for women, which she said were very progressive. Here too, the problems arise in implementation and practice in the country today.

Land distribution

However, despite these laws, there are administrative practises that are discriminatory; such is a case with regard to land distribution. The State gives land to people for development and agricultural purposes in single ownership for the sake of administrative convenience; however it is important to provide land in a joint ownership.

The importance of joint ownership is because a joint ownership will enable the woman to go to the bank and get a loan as she has some collateral. And in the event of a dispute or domestic violence case, the child and woman cannot be thrown out of her house if she is in joint ownership of the land.

But if the land is in the husband’s or father’s name alone, the woman has no authority; she is disentitled and will have nothing to show for her pains over working the land that was initially given to her husband or father.

Both women and men can apply for this State land, however when it comes to the signature it is the cultural practise that the husband, father or brother would sign for the land, which needs to change.

“Practices can be more dangerous than laws,” she stressed.

The other issue is regarding ‘the head of the household’. Whenever a form comes to the house, it asks for the head of the household to sign; in this country culturally it is the male who is the head of the household.

The problem arises when a woman is disentitled because she had not signed that form, due to which she may not be entitled to benefits and other assistance simply because she did not sign as head of the household. This too is a cultural practise and not by law where only a male has to sign.

“On paper we have a wonderful track record, but on the ground a lot more has to be done,” emphasised Gomez.

Women in the corporate world

Hiran Cooray, Chairman, Jetwing Group spoke at the discussion on the pros and cons of women in the corporate world.

Speaking regarding a recent international event when the Pacific Asia Travel Association wanted to recruit a new CEO to be based in Bangkok, he said 50 people applied for this position; however, amidst calls for a woman from fellow colleagues, not a single female had applied.

“Yes, people want women in prominent places, but they don’t want to come out,” he claimed.

Noting that even it took PATA 57 years to have a female chairperson, he said: “This is not a problem in Sri Lanka or Asia alone, but a global one.”

Citing the law in Germany stipulating that 20 per cent of a board should be females, he said they could not find women suited to the posts anymore and were not struggling, attempting to revise that law.

Speaking on the local situation, he highlighted that girls who are working say that their boyfriend or mother does not like them to work late, noting that “there are people who put limitations on the girl”.

There are such challenges in the corporate world for women, because when a mother with children goes out to work, the home may be neglected. “In some countries a man stays at home and looks after the kids and the woman enters the corporate world, but in Sri Lanka I have not come across such a situation. Maybe this is something we have to look at in the future if we are to see more women in higher positions, such as that of CEO,” he stressed.

“At Jetwing there are three female general managers and one of them is based in Sigiriya, which is not an easy place to manage. So if given the opportunity, they can even do a better job,” he added. “Yes we do recognise that there is a necessity for more females to come into the industry, but this is a hard industry with long hours of work away from the family and home life.”

Power in civil society

Dr. Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Alternatives, speaking on ‘How Powerful are Women in Civil Society?’ said that in the civil society organisations he works with such as human rights, democracy and civil society violence, there are a number of women in positions of high authority.

He recalled that in 1998, when the UN celebrated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a Sri Lankan woman was awarded the prize for her work in human rights.

“The highest-placed Sri Lankan at the UN is someone who has worked in civil society – Radhika Coomaraswamy.  She is the Secretary General at the UN for Children and Women in Armed Conflict. So in the area of work that I am in, certainly it is the case that women do hold positions of authority and are at the forefront of initiating considerable change,” he professed.

Indeed the legislative initiatives that were spoken about have been brought about because of the tireless work of the women in terms of the design and drafting of legislature and lobbying when it comes to ensuring it is upheld.

“Women in particular, in civil society have ensured that rights have been upheld and preserved. When we think about human rights, it was women’s groups in civil society who agitated and lobbied and succeeded in getting the trial at bar for the Krishanthi Coomaraswamy case,” he recalled.

“At the same time I must recognise that whilst you have a number who have succeeded in leading organisations and taking initiatives in terms of the participation of women in civil society activism and activity, it can be much greater,” he acknowledged.

“Sometimes it is attributed to the sheer force of circumstance; for example at the present moment in this post war period there are about 50,000 widows in the Wanni, the women there are forced in some kind of agitation for rights, for their entitlements and have become part of a civil society movement out of circumstance,” he revealed. “This is the basis that is going to be the unity and prosperity of this country.”

When one looks at civil society activism in other countries in south Asia, it is at much higher levels in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal than it is in Sri Lanka. There are a number of factors for this and the low level of activism is not only in women who are participating but it affects men as well.

Part of the challenge is focusing on questions of dignity and rights and forging alliances with male-dominated organisations in order to fight for those rights together.

Different approach

Shanti Sachithanandam, Chairperson, Viluthu-Sri Lanka speaking at the presentation said that she would broadly divide NGOs which are involved in welfare, development and advocacy.

“After 1975 we began to implement programmes with an eye to empowering women. During the 1980s we saw an ideology in the interventions in empowering women, this is called Women in Development (WID),” she said.

While the effort focused on bringing women to the centre of the development processes, they found that not had changed with regard to women and their role in society.

“Women were assisted in credit groups but we still saw women being delegated in areas such sewing, poultry rearing and cattle rearing so we started thinking that a different approach was needed,” she said.

“Why don’t women come forward?” she asked. “When we go to a poor village, we find out what women want. They say sewing but in such a place a woman might get just one blouse sewn for the whole year. There is no demand; it is a very poor area and the region is war torn.”

But the main factor why women don’t want to work outside the house is because of their children and that they cannot venture far from their home; this is what binds them at home.

“I have seen a lot of exceptional women who have started in the private sector and by 28 they have their first child and leave and it is only after their children are older that they decide to get back to work. This is by their late 40s and by this time the man who entered at the same time is now the executive director. This is the challenge that we are constantly facing when carrying out empowerment programmes,” she explained.

“During the 1990s Gender And Development (WAD) concept, women were not the subject; social relations were the subject. Change social relations, so that the women will assume a new world for themselves,” she observed.

As for the change of the relationship between the NGO and the beneficiaries, the beneficiaries were given pride of place and supposed to change their own lives through the interventions of the NGOs. A lot of progress was made as NGOs understood the principles with regard to themselves and society.

During their observances they realised that they had to change the way they thought: “What happened is that by giving credit, we were burdening the women more, as she has to bring supplementary income to the family. This may not be economically uplifting to them by entrenching the women in her own traditional role. There had to be a change process to help the women to come out to the immediate social environment to take a larger role in society and even participate in politics.”

She may not have to travel far, but she can make a change in her area or the region she is living in. But one important fact is that there should be a 50-50 situation: “We need the man’s role in family related matters 50 per cent to get women to participate 50 per cent outside the family,” she revealed.

The immediate needs of the family are important, but the woman needs to go beyond that and reach her higher potential in life. “Women don’t have to leave their region, they can be within their area, but they can also can do much better and improve,” she explained.

Working for years with women, she proudly says that now there are more women taking to politics in the war torn areas of Sri Lanka.

“During the current local government elections we saw a change in Kattankudy; more women making a difference and contesting in politics even in their conservative and poor society,” she revealed.

She added that in Trincomalee, four Muslim women contested the LP polls, while women from Uppuweli, Kinniya and Tricomalee contested Urban Council polls.

Women in north and east now, after seeing their fellow women contesting, want to participate in the future elections. Even in the case of voting, the women there are now making up their own minds, although they previously voted for those their husbands had told them to vote for.

It was also highlighted that all the women involved in politics in these areas came together and released a women’s manifesto calling for no violence, transparency and more participation, among other things. “Such a change was brought following years and years of hard work with these women,” she highlighted.

Manthri Perera, Past District Governor, Zonta District 25, spoke on the development of women and children and how Zonta helps women and children in various avenues of society. Zonta recognises women who have made great achievements in their area of work and carries out work in hospitals and other areas where there is a need for assistance.

Zonta also works with school children to achieve more in life as well as carry out legal and political work on working to improving women’s rights and participation.