EDITORIAL: One of the sessions at the Pakistan Literature Festival recently held in London was devoted to “Power Women in South Asia”. Discussants from Pakistan, India and Bangladesh — all patriarchal societies — shared their experiences vis-a-vis power dynamics and gender bias at workplace.
Predictably, the one familiar but vexing issue that came up in all conversations was that women are held to higher standards than men. Head of a logistics company back home in Pakistan said she had to make extra effort to prove herself as people wonder you are there because you are a family member (of the company owner).
Another woman executive of an NGO, Save the Children, talked about what she described as “unrealistic standards” set for women at organisational levels, which hold back their progress as leaders and limit their potential. All others from the three South Asian countries spoke of similar challenges.
So what will it take to change this unfair and unjust equation? A usual answer is: political empowerment at the highest levels of governments. But all three countries have had woman prime ministers respected for their intelligence, competence and/or feared like some of their male equals for strong-fisted rule.
Many others have held important positions in governments headed by men, though their number is few and far between. Yet gender bias remains pervasive. This can change only in a bottom-up approach when women and girls from diverse economic backgrounds have access to education; equal opportunities to work in all fields, including the ones regarded as male domain; and workplace environment free from risqué jokes and offensive sexual advances.
Betterment in all these areas will encourage more and more women to join different fields of human endeavour, allowing them to use their strengths and skills to take up leadership positions. And, in turn, will have a salutary effect on how women are generally perceived by society, accepting them as equals rather than lesser beings.
There is some positive movement in the right direction. Last year in Pakistan, Parliament adopted ‘Protection Against Harassment of Women at Workplace (Amendment) Act, 2022’, expanding the definition of workplace to include both formal and informal workplaces. In another progressive step last May, the National Assembly passed the ‘Maternity and Paternity Leave Bill’, already approved by the Senate in 2020.
It allows mothers to take up to six months leave for their first child, followed by four and three months for subsequent children, also granting fathers three-month leave so they can take care of their newborns.
Although this legislation applies to public and private entities operating in the capital territory of Islamabad, the provinces are also expected to follow suit. A lot more is in order, however, to better prepare women and girls for dealing with the challenges they encounter in homes and at workplaces.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023