Women face MASSIVE human rights violations in the workplace. To mark International Workers' Day, we've outlined some of the biggest issues, and what you can do to help...
Sex Trafficking
What?
Women are trafficked in staggeringly high numbers all over the globe. Women are promised job prospects, education, or a visa. They find themselves in a strange country, often unable to speak the language. Forced into prostitution, they must work to pay off 'debts' to their traffickers. This is modern day slavery.
Where?
Worldwide, nationally and internationally. Women are sex trafficked internally from poor to more affluent areas. They are trafficked internationally from poorer countries to richer ones. Traffickers often take circuitous routes to evade authorities or take advantage of looser immigration rules in certain countries.
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| Trafficking routes into the UK from outside the EU |
Support Stop the Traffik and Unseen, volunteer for Eaves and support their Poppy Project, or make a film for Unchosen!
Surrogacy
What?
A surrogacy agreement is the carrying of a pregnancy for intended parents. Rich couples “rent out” the womb of a (usually poorer) woman. To what extent should we be concerned about exploitation, commodification, and/or coercion when women are paid to be pregnant and deliver babies, especially in cases where there are large wealth and power differentials between intended parents and surrogates? Is contracting for surrogacy more like contracting for employment/labour, or more like contracting for prostitution, or more like contracting for slavery? How ethical is it to “rent” another person’s body?
Where?
Where?
Surrogate women can be found everywhere, but mostly amongst the poor within developing countries, for example in India or China, whose surrogate services are paid for by rich Western couples.
What can I do?
Read these articles to learn about fertility tourism.
Export Processing Zones (EPZs)
What?
EPZs are industrial areas set up by government in places strategic to trade and investment. Governments attempt to attract investors by offering duty-free imports, tax concessions, and, most worryingly, "flexible" labour laws. Employees are mainly women on incredibly low pay, with no unions, excessive working hours, and unsafe conditions. In efforts to maximise productivity, mandatory pregnancy testing isn't unusual and women found to be pregnant are fired. Maternity leave is non-existent.
Where?
What can I do?
Read these articles to learn about fertility tourism.
Export Processing Zones (EPZs)
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| Workers at the Alltex EPZ near Nairobi |
EPZs are industrial areas set up by government in places strategic to trade and investment. Governments attempt to attract investors by offering duty-free imports, tax concessions, and, most worryingly, "flexible" labour laws. Employees are mainly women on incredibly low pay, with no unions, excessive working hours, and unsafe conditions. In efforts to maximise productivity, mandatory pregnancy testing isn't unusual and women found to be pregnant are fired. Maternity leave is non-existent.
Where?
Over 66 million people work in EPZs globally, mainly in developing countries.
What can I do?
War on Want say boycotting companies will only further harm the job security of the people you're trying to help. Instead, support their campaigns, or Labour Behind The Label's attempts to secure garment workers a living wage.
What can I do?
War on Want say boycotting companies will only further harm the job security of the people you're trying to help. Instead, support their campaigns, or Labour Behind The Label's attempts to secure garment workers a living wage.
Pay gap
What?
Whilst in some (mainly Western) countries equal pay for equal work is the legal standard, women still earn less than men on average.
Where?
Sadly, the gender pay gap is pretty universal.
What can I do?
The pay gap exists because women's work isn't valued as much as men's. People tend to promote people that will 'fit in'. Women are often overlooked because they don't fit into the already masculine culture, because they might leave and have babies, because of their perceived inability to be 'agressive' enough, because ambition and competitiveness in women isn't prized as it is in men... I could go on. They're often funnelled into jobs which pay less. We need to tackle the root causes whilst fighting for quotas and campaigning for affordable childcare. Learn about the issues from Close the Gap and support the Fawcett Society's Women and Work campaign.
Unpaid Care Work
What?
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| The international gender pay gap, illustrated |
Whilst in some (mainly Western) countries equal pay for equal work is the legal standard, women still earn less than men on average.
Where?
Sadly, the gender pay gap is pretty universal.
What can I do?
The pay gap exists because women's work isn't valued as much as men's. People tend to promote people that will 'fit in'. Women are often overlooked because they don't fit into the already masculine culture, because they might leave and have babies, because of their perceived inability to be 'agressive' enough, because ambition and competitiveness in women isn't prized as it is in men... I could go on. They're often funnelled into jobs which pay less. We need to tackle the root causes whilst fighting for quotas and campaigning for affordable childcare. Learn about the issues from Close the Gap and support the Fawcett Society's Women and Work campaign.
Unpaid Care Work
What?
Unpaid care work underpins all societies. It's the work that (mainly women) do to keep the home and care for their family and the local community. If unpaid care work were assigned a monetary value it would constitute between 10 and 39 per cent of GDP. When women participate in the paid workforce, they often end up carrying a double burden of paid work and unpaid care work (that they are still expected to do without the help of men).
Where?
Globally. Even if in more developed countries where women can afford to hire a domestic worker, they're often participating in a system which locks women in low paid jobs (see domestic worker above).
What can I do?
Support Carers Trust or Oxfam’s Innovations in Care initiative.
Domestic Workers
What?
Domestic workers are usually women, and often migrant women, who work within their employers’ household. They perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping. Domestic workers usually come from poorer countries or socio-economic backgrounds and have little legal protection, especially in a foreign country, therefore they are often exploited.
What can I do?
Support Carers Trust or Oxfam’s Innovations in Care initiative.
Domestic Workers
Domestic workers are usually women, and often migrant women, who work within their employers’ household. They perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping. Domestic workers usually come from poorer countries or socio-economic backgrounds and have little legal protection, especially in a foreign country, therefore they are often exploited.
Where?
Domestic workers can be found in all countries, but it is typically women from poorer countries migrating to richer countries.
What can I do?
Read the recent Human Rights Watch report on domestic workers in the UK and support Justice for Domestic Workers or Kalayaan.
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DF & LK
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