The Role of The IL
The Role of The IL
The Role of The IL
21st century
Jane Hodges
Gender Equality and Diversity Branch,
International Labour Organisation, Switzerland
Introduction1
Having been created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles which ended the
hostilities of the Great War, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has
almost 100 years’ experience in addressing the important theme of balancing ten-
sions that pit work responsibilities against family roles and societal expectations.
With such a weight of history and time, one might be forgiven for expecting this
article to overflow with successes and positive examples, built up over decades of
normative work, policy advice, research and data collection, technical support and
capacity-building with the ILO’s tripartite (employer, union and government) con-
stituents. Yet, as with many fundamental principles and rights in the world of
work, equality for women and men remains a challenge.
The following section will cover the particular characteristics of the ILO and its
commitment to gender equality in general. Next I will expand on the International
Labour Standards (ILS) relevant to balancing work and family, with recent exam-
ples of good practices. In concluding, I will tempt the reader to examine in more
depth the structural reasons that appear to feed the tensions, and posit ways
forward.
Corresponding author:
Jane Hodges, Gender Equality and Diversity Branch, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Geneva,
Switzerland.
Email: [email protected]
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568 Journal of Industrial Relations 56(4)
economic sense: gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States is estimated to
increase by 9% if women’s employment rates are raised to the same level as those of
men. In the same scenario, GDP within the Eurozone would rise by 13% and in
Japan by 16%. On the other hand, restricting job opportunities for women in Asia
and the Pacific, where 45% of women remain outside the labour market, is esti-
mated to cost the region annually between 42 and 46 billion US dollars.4 The
success of national and workplace strategies to promote women’s equal opportu-
nities and treatment in labour markets and gender equality at work are dependent
on adequate and accessible maternity protection and family-friendly services and
measures. Supporting workers with family responsibilities also helps fathers to be
more involved in care of their children and to more equally share in responsibilities
in the home. With this in mind, the Congress Programme offers many opportunities
to demonstrate that ‘men care too’.
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Hodges 569
uneven effects on women, who are most likely to be the main care providers for
their families.7 The availability of childcare and commuting distances between
home and work is also relevant. Differences in the working patterns of women
and men have a negative impact on women’s job prospects, occupational choices,
careers and pay, while increasing their overall workload. In some ways, the avail-
ability of part-time work has opened doors to reconciling work and parenthood.
However, in most countries, part-time work remains ‘women’s work’, thus reinfor-
cing the traditional sexual divisions of labour. Women and men in developing
countries face additional challenges to balancing work and family, especially in
rural areas where time-consuming chores, long distances, poor infrastructure and
general poverty prevail.
ILO’s supervisory machinery8 has been tracking implementation of Convention
156, and over time noted many positive improvements. Some measures that have
been ‘noted with satisfaction’ or ‘with interest’ involve repealing unsatisfactory
legislation or introducing new statutory entitlements, other observations issued
by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and
Recommendations (CEACR) welcome practical innovations that have enabled
women – and men – to better balance their professional careers and family
responsibilities.
Observations have been addressed to ratifying countries with diverse legal sys-
tems and different socio-economic situations and cultures. For example, in 2012,
the CEACR noted for Chile the important statutory improvements in leave entitle-
ment on death of a child, as well as extension of adoption leave to both mothers
and fathers. The CEACR also noted with interest practical measures adopted in the
mining sector, such as the holding of workshops to raise awareness about sharing of
work–family responsibilities, creation of breastfeeding rooms and better measures
for the protection of pregnant women who work in this highly masculine sector.
Another example is the CEACR position on Australia, the host country of this
Congress. Australia was ‘ranked’ as having adopted measures of interest under
Convention 156 that year too, with the adoption of the Fair Work Act, and its
provisions to assist employees in balancing their work and family responsibilities.
Family responsibilities
Working families often face competing demands and trade-offs when reconciling
work with childcare responsibilities. Finding the right balance is particularly diffi-
cult for low-income families constrained by a lack of resources and limited access to
the quality childcare services that are vital to give their children a good start in life.
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570 Journal of Industrial Relations 56(4)
Parents need support measures that make it easier to pursue decent work without
sacrificing their child’s development. To assist in sharing information on good
practices regarding this hard task, in 2012 the ILO produced a Working Paper
entitled ‘Good practices and challenges on the Maternity Protection Convention,
2000 (No. 183) and the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981
(No. 156): A comparative study’. It presents 10 national case studies on
Conventions 183 and 156 and identifies opportunities for stepping up ratification
and implementation of these Conventions. An annex contains an annotated bibli-
ography of 150 relevant publications, making this a complete reference tool for
policy-makers and practitioners. Another recent ILO Working Paper offers an
integrated set of social sector investments that target the critical stages of early
childhood, from pregnancy through to care and development in the early years and
later childhood. This integrated approach can give families the support needed to
balance the competing demands of the labour market and childcare. Special atten-
tion should be paid to women who bear a disproportionate share of childcare
responsibilities and are consequently disadvantaged in terms of their labour force
participation and decent work opportunities. The ILO advocates that no mother or
father should have to choose between earning an income and caring for his or
her child.
Amongst member States, childcare is emerging as one of the most critical elem-
ents of systems to support working parents. The ILO’s programmes on the ground
in our 185 member States demonstrate the multiple advantages of childcare. These
include the promotion of gender equality, improving women’s opportunities for
employment, self-development and empowerment, helping to prevent the perpetu-
ation of social inequalities and intergenerational poverty, strengthening
families’ social and economic security, and reducing their vulnerability to risk.
Childcare facilitates the smooth and efficient functioning of labour markets,
through the full utilisation of society’s growing investment in women’s education
and a diversified labour force. Childcare also provides a stronger start for disad-
vantaged children, enhancing their physical well-being, cognitive and language
skills, and social and emotional development. It contributes to job creation in
the service sector to replace some of the unpaid household work and increases
tax revenues, since higher participation rates and earnings of parents increase
national production. Finally, in the longer term, appropriate childcare reduces
public expenditure on welfare and on remedial education and crime.
While there is good reason to stress the need for good quality childcare, the
concept of family responsibilities goes beyond children and ensuring that there are
no consequences of missed opportunities from neglect in early childhood, which
would reverberate throughout society and over time. Family responsibilities also
cover care of the elderly and other dependent family members.
The care of the elderly is a significant challenge in the 21st century. Together
with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in 2009 the ILO
produced research findings from the Americas called ‘Work and Family:
Towards new forms of reconciliation with social co-responsibility’.9 This
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Hodges 571
Domestic labour
It is important to highlight one group of workers who have traditionally been at
the core of family care as more women enter the labour force around the world.
These are the women and girls whose domestic labour enables other women (and
men) to make a career. This raises the question of the rights of these domestic
workers to a work–family balance. Female domestic workers have limited access
to protection and measures that help ensure safe and healthy pregnancies and
births, a replacement income while on leave and the right to return to their jobs.
Some 36% of female domestic workers globally do not benefit from legal entitle-
ments to maternity leave. Where maternity leave entitlements exist, their enjoy-
ment in practice is often hampered by lack of income replacement during leave.
Furthermore, a number of countries receiving migrant domestic workers have
laws or regulations that allow dismissal and/or repatriation of such workers
found to be pregnant. This is despite the fact that Convention 183 on
Maternity Protection aims to cover all employed women and prohibits discrim-
ination based on maternity. In the Decent Work for Domestic Workers
Convention, 2011 (No. 189), Article 14(1) requires members to take appropriate
measures to ensure domestic workers enjoy conditions not less favourable than
those generally applicable to workers in respect to social security protection,
including regarding maternity benefits. These measures are to be taken ‘in accord-
ance with national laws and regulations’ and ‘with due regard to the specific
characteristics of domestic work’.
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572 Journal of Industrial Relations 56(4)
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Conclusions
Examining gender-based differences in society – in order to understand their deter-
minants, consider ways in which they can be altered and take the measure of
change that is achieved – requires a good and well-maintained evidence base.
Data collection and related research should always accommodate sex as a basic
attribute and should include a dedicated analysis of the roles of men and women.
Efforts to advance knowledge and improve information sharing in this area should
be guided by the systematic collection of data showing what men and what women
do in labour markets, and more thorough analysis in reports of research findings,
paying systematic attention to sex as a variable.13
As the Report to the 2009 International Labour Conference concluded:
That sex discrimination has not disappeared from the world of work shows a lack of
political commitment and – in some contexts – legal laxity, but the underlying cause
remains embedded in societal attitudes. Development policies and programmes must
challenge stereotyped assumptions about gender roles which have become systemic in
social patterns, institutional structures and legal constructs in both formal and informal
workplaces. Despite so much attention to this issue in recent decades and the massive
entry of female workers into labour markets, this report shows that – in practice – more
progress could have been achieved if prejudices about what women can do and what their
male colleagues can do had disappeared. The striking example is the assumption, at all
levels and across most regions, that care work is the domain of women and not men.
Policies and programmes should be designed in ways which expand women’s opportu-
nities and choices, rather than restricting them only to traditional gender roles tied to
motherhood and the household. They should also involve men in ways that break down
gender stereotyping and open up possibilities for men and boys to take on a more active
caring role.14
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Hodges 575
The ILO’s role in developing and promoting Conventions and Regulations for
member States to address gender, work and family inequities continues to be
important in setting international standards and norms, but the role of the tripar-
tite constituents themselves in ensuring that these Conventions and Regulations are
enforced is equally, if not more, important.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial,
or not-for-profit sectors.
Notes
1. Based on a speech made to the 5th International Conference on Community, Work and
Family, Sydney, Australia, 17–19 July 2013, organised by the Australian Institute of
Family Studies and the Universities of Sydney and South Australia.
2. ILO. Constitution and selected texts. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2011.
3. International Labour Conference. Report of the committee on gender equality.
Provisional Record 13, 98th Session, pages 13/64 to 13/78. Geneva: ILO, 2009.
4. Facts and figures on women, poverty and economics, factsheet, UN Women, year not
cited, New York, p. 1.
5. Haspels N and Majurin E (2008) Work, income and gender equality in East Asia.
Bangkok: ILO, p. 58.
6. The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) 1979 also recognises the importance of sharing family
responsibilities.
7. In Japan, for instance, the average time men spent on domestic tasks was just one-
seventh of the time spent by women. Boulin JY, et al. (eds) (2006) Decent working
time: New trends, new issues. Geneva: ILO, p. 352.
8. For a description of the mechanism, often described as one of the most sophisticated
and efficient in the whole UN treaty bodies system, see ILO. Rules of the game: A brief
introduction to International Labour Standards. Geneva: ILO, Revised edition 2009.
Available at: http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/WCMS_108393/lang–en/index.
htm (accessed 13 March 2014).
9. Available at: www.ilo.org/gender/Informationresources/Publications/WCMS_111375/
lang–en/index.htm (accessed 13 March 2014).
10. UNDP and ILO (2009) Work and family: Towards new forms of reconciliation with social
co-responsibility. NY: UNDP and ILO, p. 16; for website link, see footnote 10.
11. Alzheimer’s Association and National Alliance for Caregiving (United States); Leland J.
More men take the lead role in caring for elderly parents. New York Times (New York),
28 November 2008.
12. The Child Support Grant reaches 11.3 million children under age 18 living in households
with income below specified ceilings, or 55% of all children. Fultz E and Francis J
(2013) Cash transfer programmes, poverty reduction and empowerment of women: A com-
parative analysis. Experiences from Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico and South Africa.
Geneva: ILO, p. 15. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—
dgreports/—gender/documents/publication/wcms_233599pdf (accessed 13 March 2014).
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576 Journal of Industrial Relations 56(4)
13. ILO. Gender equality at the heart of decent work. Report VI, International Labour
Conference, 98th Session. Geneva, 2009, para. 412.
14. ILO. Report VI, see footnote 13, paras 413 and 414.
Biographical note
Jane Hodges, BA, LLB, Post Graduate Diploma in International Law, Solicitor
and Notary Public, Trade Marks Attorney, is the Director of the Gender Equality
Bureau for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) based in Geneva. Since
joining the ILO in 1980, Hodges has served in the Freedom of Association and
Equality and Human Rights Coordination Branches (NORMES), the Southern
African Multidisciplinary Team (SRO-Harare), the Department for Government,
Labour Law and Administration (GLLAD) and, most recently, the Social
Dialogue, Labour Law and Labour Administration Branch (DIALOGUE). She
has broad experience in international and comparative labour law and has designed
and delivered training programmes in the area of fundamental principles and rights
at work, in particular gender equality, human rights and HIV/AIDS. She has rep-
resented the ILO in many UN bodies during her career, in particular advocating
International Labour Standards on non-discrimination with the treaty bodies. Ms
Hodges is the author of a number of articles and has contributed to books con-
cerning workers’ rights as human rights. Prior to joining the ILO, Ms Hodges
practised law in a large Sydney, New South Wales law firm as a Solicitor,
Notary Public and Trade Marks Attorney, having passed the relevant admission
board requirements. Hodges holds a BA in modern languages and an LLB
(Australian National University) and has undertaken international law postgradu-
ate studies at Sydney University (Australia) and The Hague Academy of
International Law (Netherlands). She has attained various postgraduate
Diplomas including Management of Interdependence of Developing Countries in
a Changing World (Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations,
Geneva) and Crisis Response Training (University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Disaster Management Centre, USA).
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