Men and boys need to be part of the global movement to promote women's rights: Nazia Qadir

HeForShe is a solidarity movement for gender equality developed by the United Nations to engage men and boys as advocates and agents of change for the achievement of gender equality and women's rights. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) globally supports the program and endeavours to achieve its objectives in all countries where its member network is active. Nazia Qadir is the head of business development and corporate training at A.F. Ferguson & Co. a member firm of the PwC network and is also leading the support for the HeForShe campaign in Pakistan. BR Research recently discussed the goals of the program and the steps being taken by PwC to reach these goals in Pakistan.
HeForShe Program
Much has been achieved by the feminist movement and women's rights organisations across the world in promoting gender equality to this day; however, progress has been uneven between and among countries with pervasive gender based discrimination continuing in every country and region. It is the time to capitalise on the recognition that women's empowerment is essential for inclusive economic growth, social cohesion and social justice, environmental balance, and for progress in all spheres of life. Men and boys need to be part of the global movement to promote women's rights both as advocates and stakeholders, who need to change to make gender equality a reality for all. This is not about women or men; it is about crafting a shared vision of human progress for all, about creating a solidarity movement between women and men for the achievement of gender equality. Gender equality liberates not only women but also men, from prescribed social roles and gender stereotypes. The campaign encourages them to take action against inequalities faced by women and girls.
HeForShe in Pakistan
As per the Global Gender Gap Index 2014, Pakistan is ranked at 141 out of 142 countries (Source: World Economic Forum. The overall Global Gender Gap Index is constructed using the variables: Economic participation and opportunity, Educational attainment, Health and survival and Political empowerment). That does not in any way mean that there have not been any efforts to bridge the gender divide in Pakistan, some have gone as far as taken a bullet for the cause (read: Malala Yousufzai). For as long as women have been campaigning for an end to discrimination, for equal rights, for an end to violence and sexual assault, education for women and girls, there have also been men who have stood with them, working alongside them, and supporting them. However the number of men involved has been few and the support has been largely from the sidelines. HeForShe invites men and boys to build on the work of the women's movement as equal partners in the crafting and implementation of a shared vision of gender equality that will benefit all of humanity.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers is globally supporting the United Nations' HeForShe Campaign. Significant activity to support the campaign is underway globally, within the network. As a member firm of the PwC network, we are attempting to create awareness and implement this program in Pakistan, keeping in accordance with the UN Women's Strategic Plan 2014 - 2017.
The 3 As of the HeForShe strategy are:
Awareness - HeForShe will use social and cultural media to extend reach and build global, national and local understanding about the current reality and perception regarding women and equality, particularly highlighting social change success stories. The tools will use arts, pop culture and technology to spotlight the impact of gender equality on both men and women, and the leaders who are fostering change.
Advocacy - HeForShe will establish a network of spokespeople and "influencers" who represent target audience groups, understand and care deeply about the issue, have the reach and stature to change the hearts and minds of the world, and are willing to stand in the spotlight.
Action - The HeForShe action platform facilitates various levels of engagement through: Multi-lingual Action Kits, Engagement Frameworks and Resource Mobilisation. HeForShe will mobilise individual men through the "sign up" approach, starting with an online pledge on www.heforshe.pwc.com
Strategic pillars of the HeForShe campaign
1) Economic empowerment of women
Significant strides have been made towards greater gender equality over the last 30 years. World-wide, more women are being educated and finishing school, more women are entering labour markets and earning wages as employees or owning and running businesses. Women have made enormous contributions to economic growth nurturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs), spurring local development and generating new employment opportunities. Yet even as women are entering the labour market in unprecedented numbers world-wide, their participation rates lag behind that of men, they tend to concentrate in feminised occupations, clustering disproportionately in part-time or informal employment, as a result of which marked gender differences in wages, hours and access to statutory benefits can be observed.
Globally, the gender pay gap is estimated to be 22.9 %, which means that on average women earn 77.1% of what men earn. Furthermore, the rates of return to potential experience (years since leaving full-time education) are lower for women than men and the pay gap for women who are married with children is generally larger (UN Women 2014, forthcoming).
It is not possible to understand the gender inequalities in the labour market without also looking at the gender inequalities within the household. The gender division of labour within the household is a key determinant of the gender inequality that can be observed in the market. Across the globe, men undertake the greater proportion of total paid work while women undertake the greater proportion of total unpaid work in the household. In Africa and Asia, women are responsible for approximately 80 %of the total time dedicated to unpaid work in the household, hence women appear to work longer hours in the sum of paid and unpaid work.
The role of men in supporting women's economic empowerment in labour markets and in the economic sphere is also critical given current data representing the significant gender gap within the business sector. HeForShe engages male CEOs and leaders as champions for gender equality within their own organisations, encouraging them to question the status quo and commit to concrete action towards equality. On an individual level, HeForShe engages men to re-evaluate how their work and home life can be organised differently to better recognise, reduce, and redistribute care and responsibilities between the market and the state, between the household and the workplace, and between women and men.
2) Ending violence against women
Violence against women and girls is a global epidemic decade of mobilisation by civil society and women's movements have put ending gender-based violence high on national and international agendas. Despite laws against domestic violence, sexual assault and other forms of violence, the implementation of laws and policies to address violence against women has been slow and uneven in many parts of the world, which limits women and girls' access to safety, justice and support. Not enough is done to prevent violence, and when it does occur, it often goes unreported and unpunished.
All men have a role to play, by being conscientious about and changing their own attitudes, values and behaviours towards women and girls and by ensuring that they do not personally engage in discrimination or violence. Organisations should have stringent policies and processes in place to prevent harassment and ensure appropriate action in cases where it does occur. If every man did take responsibility for himself, this alone would be enough to end violence against women and girls.
3) Governance & leadership
Women's participation and leadership in the judiciary, local government and the private sector, is sporadic. Practical difficulties for women to vote, such as lack of access to identity documentation or incidents of violence, which preclude women registering and voting; Political parties that resist the inclusion of women in their candidate lists, and do not place women in winnable positions; Women candidates' lack of access to financial resources to run electoral campaigns are just some of the reasons for limited representation.
Increasing women's political participation and leadership requires a range of interventions, chief among which is political will. Without dedicated political commitment from the predominantly male political party, government, and parliamentary leaders, women will not be represented among decision-makers. Political parties decide on the political "opportunity" and control the nomination process. In many countries, the "gatekeeper" role that parties play means that women remain on the outside because most candidate selection processes are male dominated. Where men have prioritised gender equality, great results have followed. HeForShe will highlight the contribution male political leaders have already made to gender equality, engaging them as catalysts for change across both public and private spheres, and will provide targeted support to male leadership eager to engage in these strategies.
4) Peace and security
Across history, almost all societies have viewed the security sector as the domain of men, with women playing roles that, if at all acknowledged, usually conform to stereotypes such as victim, nurse, camp follower, etc. As a result, security sector reform (SSR) decision-making and implementation has often been male-dominated as well. Very often, attempts to integrate gender into SSR have followed the "add women and stir" approach, with prescriptions focused on increasing the employment of women in the security sector, or establishing more forums for women to interact with the security sector.
The HeForShe campaign provides a platform on which to enlist men to help change that imbalance in leadership positions of matter of peace and security, and to scale-up UN Women's existing work on the engagement of men and boys in efforts to empower and protect women and girls in conflict and post conflict settings. While the overwhelming majority of policymakers, diplomats, military leaders, combatants, and official mediators and negotiators in peace talks are men, engaging women will remain a necessary and inevitable strategy to subvert gender inequality in peace and security matters.