TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Workplaces urged to improve gender equality
Female leaders of Indonesia’s state and private sectors are striving to achieve gender equality in the workplace, something they acknowledge as having long been overlooked in the formal work environment
Change Size
F
span>Female leaders of Indonesia’s state and private sectors are striving to achieve gender equality in the workplace, something they acknowledge as having long been overlooked in the formal work environment.
They explained their efforts during a joint event titled “Ring the Bell for Gender Equality” initiated by United Nations Women, UN Global Compact, UN Sustainable Stock Exchange and several other partners.
As the presence of women in the workplace increases, stakeholders need to ensure their rights and safety so that their contribution can be translated into a larger contribution to economic growth, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said.
Sri Mulyani, perhaps the highest-profile female figures in finance in Indonesia, emphasized the policymaking process in the country increasingly involved women’s empowerment issues.
“The principles of gender equality are in our national development plan because we have mainstreamed those aspects into our state budgets,” she said recently. “Gender equality is a strategic issue from the perspective of economics and society, thus it has to become much more resilient than it is at the moment.”
Sri Mulyani stated that only 54 percent of Indonesian women of working age participated in the labor market, compared to over 83 percent of men in the same category. The average wage for women, said the minister, was also 32 percent lower than that for men.
“This is caused by the number of obstacles women have to get past in order to participate in the economy and even in balancing their life and work,” she said.
Ring the Bell for Gender Equality was a ceremonial event that took place at the Indonesia Stock Exchange, which followed the steps of more than 70 registered stock exchanges worldwide through a bell-ringing ceremony.
The event highlighted a joint study by UN Women, Global Compact Network Indonesia and the Indonesia Business Coalition for Women Empowerment (IBCWE) in the top-50 companies in Indonesia.
The study found that the average proportion of women on the companies’ leadership boards was recorded at a mere 28 percent.
At the same time, only 30 percent of the companies claimed to have policies to promote equal career opportunities, and a mere 6 percent of these had active policies to review equal pay.
IBCWE chairperson and seasoned businesswoman Shinta Kamdani said the coalition had rolled out a global-standard certification program to measure gender equality in the workplace, namely the Economic Dividends for Gender Equality (EDGE).
“We can see there is equal participation between women and men at the [workplace] entry level, but the proportion starts to get out of balance when their careers move up,” Shinta said at the event, claiming that the overall female presence on the boards of directors nationwide might be as low as 5 percent.
Furthermore, the coalition has been fighting to make sure that female workers are provided with the necessary work training and facilities they need in order for them to advance in their careers, including physical facilities such as nurseries and office-backed daycare, she said.
The IBCWE also looked at the issue of investing in female entrepreneurship, such as by providing legal support for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) run by women as well as helping them manage their permits and taxes.
“This effort is important as a lot of women are self-employed but informally [...] so we would like to help them, to formalize their businesses and enter the economic system,” said Shinta.
UN Women representative Sabine Machl said that when women participated more in the workforce, not only did their earnings contribute to the economy, but they also invested back in their families, communities and the younger generation that they raised.
“Therefore, it is important to tackle adverse norms and ensure an enabling environment for women to be able to realize their potential and contribute fully to the economy, society and business,” Machl said at the event.
Vice chair of the Board of UN Global Compact and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), Paul Polman, acknowledged the positive increase in gender-equality performance in business sectors as companies become more balanced in their gender-based treatment of employees. “With collaboration between the private sector, gender equality organizations and government, we can support this equality in being implemented,” said Polman.
