Women have made great strides in the workforce, breaking barriers and fighting for their rights, but why are they still stereotyped when it comes to their role within the family?
The gender pay gap continues to make headlines and is a global concern as men and women are still not always provided with equal pay opportunities. In the past, married women were confined to the role of the primary caretaker of children and their homes. Not all women had access to higher education, and so, opportunities for meaningful employment were limited. Women would often find work in routine, clerical roles and only some of those women dared to push the boundaries. However, as times have progressed, women have been breaking the stereotypes and are now seen in all sorts of roles and industries, even in those that have been traditionally male-dominated. While the roles that women play have drastically evolved, their pay hasn’t progressed at the same rate.
Much research has gone into this over the years, and some of the findings suggest that not only is the gender pay gap still a concern, but that it actually also prevails between women who are mothers versus those that aren’t. The research indicates that working moms may seek roles that provide shorter hours or more flexibility, and not always want to pursue bigger projects or take business trips, and so this is then reflected in their pay as they take on smaller roles. Women without children will not have the same family restrictions and can take on the same challenging roles as their male counterparts. While for some working mothers, this could be a choice they have made so that they are able to manage their work and children more effectively, for others it may be their only option.
In the UAE, a Gender Balance Council has been established by the government to ensure that equal gender wages are the norm for every citizen in the country. There has also been a lot of effort and support from the government to ensure that Emirati women take on senior leadership roles, even introducing daycare facilities in some of the federal entities. However, because of the pervasive patriarchal society, in which most men don’t play an equal role in parenting, there is still a lot of demand on women raising a key factor as to why gender pay is still a problem. Women all over the world are seen as the primary caretaker, and they are the ones who go on maternity leave, take time off for school meetings, children’s doctor’s appointments, and so on. Therefore, it has created a perception that women have other priorities besides their careers, thus causing a rift between gender pay.
In an effort to eradicate this perception, Iceland introduced a law in 2000 that enforced new fathers to take three months of paid paternity leave, along with the mother’s three months maternity leave, and a further three months that the new parents could divide between them for the purpose of attending to their child. The paternity leave was a mandatory, non-transferable leave which encouraged men to take that time off and play an equal part in taking care of and bonding with their newborn. This paternity law brought forth a major shift in which both parents should be perceived as the primary caretaker of their children and not only lay the burden on the mother. It led employers to accept that both parents would be taking this time off and not just mothers, thereby, reducing their reluctance in hiring women. This law is in place in some other countries around the world, namely the Scandinavian countries, and in 2008, the UAE had begun to look into introducing this. However, as of yet, no such law is in place. Some organizations in the UAE have introduced a paternity leave at their own discretion, but it is usually only limited to three days of leave, which is simply not significant enough to make a shift in perception as this time is then usually used to process the birth certificate and passport rather than being involved with the newborn’s care.
Society has dictated that men are breadwinners and women, although they can have careers, are still the primary caretakers, and this is one part of the gender pay equation which needs to be addressed. According to the founding director of the World Policy Analysis Center, Jody Heymann, “to achieve gender equality both in the workplace and the home, it’s essential for men to have an equal chance to be there with their newborn babies”.
The gender shift is not only about employment and pay, but just like almost everything else in life, it begins at home with us.
References:
http://www.nordiclabourjournal.org/i-fokus/in-focus-2019/future-of-work-iceland/article.2019-04-11.9299118347
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/
2018/06/14/619604235/which-countries-guarantee
-that-new-dads-get-paid-paternity-leave
