OPINION
Many countries have developed anti-discrimination laws because general employment provisions that simply urge employers to abstain from any type of discrimination are not enough, writes Selam Gebretsion.
Employment is linked with economic growth and poverty reduction as it is the common means to earn money. Unfortunately, women in general have limited access to employment compared to men. This fact is no different for Ethiopian women. According to the 2005 Ethiopian Labor Force Survey conducted by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MoLSA) and CSA in urban areas, 60.1 percent of the formal employment sector is occupied by men while female employees account for only 35 percent. If we deconstruct this figure further, we will find out that these employed women are rarely engaged in jobs with status, power and authority, or in traditionally male dominated occupations. Ethiopian women are significantly underrepresented among legislators, senior officials and managers. Instead, they are heavily overrepresented among clerks, service and sales workers.
On the other hand, numerous studies indicate that increased earning power of women has a greater and more immediate effect on family welfare than increased earnings for men. These studies argue that there is a difference in expenditure when a man earns income and when a woman earns income, as the men are most likely to invest in materials and tools for the household, like houses and cars, while women tend to expend in education and nutrition, which has a direct impact on children. For this reason, they strongly argue that, increasing women's income would have a very significant impact in ensuring sustainable economic prosperity by enhancing human capital formation for the next generation.
Employment policies and legislations play a critical role in bringing gender equality in the employment sector as these instrument direct and facilitate as to 'who' should get paid and benefit from employment. In order to narrow the gender gap in employment, policies and legislations should consider the imbalance that needs to be addressed. Developing gender responsive policy and legislations requires more than ensuring women are merely included in the text of policies and legislations. Rather, it urges a rigorous analysis of existing structural inequalities, and a designing of machineries that will bring significant change.
Many countries have adopted specific legislation prohibiting discrimination and promoting equality in employment, and many national constitutions contain articles stipulating gender equality. In this regard, Ethiopia is one of the leading counties to introduce legislations that prohibit any kind of discrimination in employment. Starting with the 1995 constitution and the subordinate proclamations and directives, one can find clauses that specifically promote gender equality in employment. Ethiopia has also ratified most of the International Instruments that promote gender equality in the employment sector. For instance, it has ratified the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156) on January 28, 1991, and Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) on June 11, 1966.
Unfortunately, most employers hold negative assumptions regarding the role of the female worker. They often consider the possible conflict between the women's job responsibilities and their reproductive roles and time burdens due to limited access to productive resources and child-rearing and caring responsibilities. Unless, these stereotypes are eliminated from the workplace, women will continue to face discrimination in recruitment, promotion and getting benefits.
These days, recruiting organizations are conscious about the illegality of direct discrimination such as barring women from applying for a vacancy announcement. Instead, they use indirect discriminatory techniques. Most employers discriminate indirectly during recruitment and interview periods. For instance, interview question such as, "What is your marital status?" "Do you have children?" "How many children do you have and what is their age?" "Are you pregnant?" etc., indirectly intend to find out the responsibility of the candidate at the household level.
However, recruitment procedures and interviews should aim to assess the skill, expertise and experience of the candidate. Interview questions about marriage plans or family intentions should not be asked as they are likely to show a bias against female candidates. One cannot deny the importance of information as regards to marital status and number of child for the employer organization, but such information should be obtained after the job is offered in order to avoid discrimination based on sex/gender.
Recognizing this problem, many countries have developed anti-discrimination laws because general employment provisions that simply urge employers to abstain from any type of discrimination are not enough. Most of the anti-discrimination laws incorporate provisions that indicate or list illegal interview questions in order to avoid indirect discrimination.
This article critically looks the gender sensitivity of the leading employment laws, namely the Labour Proclamation No. 377/2003, the Federal Civil Servants Proclamation No. 515/2007 and the Civil Servants Recruitment Process Directive that facilitates the implementation of article 14/3 of the Civil Servants proclamation.
The Federal Civil Servants and the Labor law incorporate articles that prohibit discrimination of any kind in the employment sector. More specifically, article 13 of the Federal Civil Servants proclamation prohibit discrimination of job seekers, civil servants or employees based on sex, ethnic origin, religion, political outlook, disability, HIV/AIDS, or any other grounds.
The Labor Proclamation provides specific provisions that aim to protect female employees' interests considering the social challenge they might face in employment. For instance, article 14 and article 87(1) prohibit the discrimination of female employees in payment and other benefits on the basis of sex. Article 14(1)(f) of Labor Proclamation No. 377/2003 states that it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate between workers on the basis of nationality, sex, religion, political outlook or any other conditions. The Committee requested the government to clarify whether section 14(1)(f) protects workers from discrimination in the selection and recruitment process and whether the employment service is bound by the principle of non-discrimination.
The Civil Servants Recruitment Process Directive No. 5.5 provides procedures and steps that should be taken by an employer during the recruitment process. Accordingly, it stipulates interview questions to be designed in a way that aim to assess the person's ability, aptitude level of expertise, and skill. This directive goes further and discusses the key issues that should be raised by interviewees such as introducing themselves and describing the objective of the job. Nevertheless, the directive is silent when it comes to questions or issues that should not be raised during interviews in order to avoid indirect discrimination. Moreover, the application of this directive is only limited to civil servants (government employees) and is not applicable to private employers.
All the above-mentioned laws incorporate provision that urge employers to abstain from discriminating against female candidates and employees. However, unless these legislations are backed by anti-discrimination laws, their applicability will be in danger.
Especially in countries like Ethiopia, where the private employment sector is growing, unless employment laws that protect the interest of women are in place, it will be challenging, if not impossible, to narrow the gender gap from what we are witnessing at present. For instance,
in common instances, business organizations aim to maximize their profit and minimize costs, they might opt to discriminate against female candidates as female employees might demand maternal leave and days off in case their children get sick, all of which would be costly for the employer. Furthermore, because acts of sex discrimination are frequently and subtly conceived and not readily detectable, women often remain unaware that sex discrimination constitutes a moving force in their work lives, and, as a result, they seldom seek legal redress for it (Women and workplace discrimination: overcoming barriers to gender equality, 2003, by Raymond F. Gregory). For this reason, the government should show its commitment to gender equality in the employment sector by creating a system that ensures the applicability of equality provisions.
Ed.'s Note: Selam Gebretsion is a lawyer and gender expert. She holds an MA in Gender Studies from Addis Ababa University, LLM from the University of the Western Cape and Humboldt University and LLB from Jimma University. For more than 7 years, Selam has been working in legal and women's rights issues in various responsibilities as a gender expert, lecturer and as a public prosecutor. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter. She can be reached at
Source: AllAfrica
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