Women's representation

Freedom of association plays a critical role in enabling gender equality in the workplace. To achieve gender equality in the workplace means, it is important to create an environment in which men and women enjoy equal rights and opportunities – FOA unlocks the ability to work in an environment where workers are free to raise concerns and express their collective needs.

In emerging economies, women are typically the most vulnerable workers. Entrenched social and cultural perceptions of gender roles can result in discriminatory attitudes, with women often lacking access to education and training. And with a lower awareness of their rights and less support in their community, women often take on low-skilled, low paid work, with fewer or less workplace protections. For example:

• Globally, women represent less than 40% of employees, yet they represent 57% of those working on a part-time basis.

• Women are typically paid less for equal work. In developing countries, this has created a gender wage gap equivalent to US$2 trillion in women’s earnings, or the value of India’s entire economy.

• Women are also more vulnerable to harassment and violence in the workplace. The ILO estimates that 35% of women globally have experienced direct violence at the workplace. Of these, between 40 and 50% were subjected to unwanted sexual advances, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment.

Workplace discrimination 

Similarly, when seeking to enable workers to associate freely and engage in collective bargaining, it is important to consider how best to ensure that women and men have equal opportunities to voice their concerns, particularly about sectors and types of work with large numbers of women workers. It is also important to establish who represents women workers and how their concerns are raised. 

Of the four core ILO labour standards underpinning the ETI Base Code, Convention No. 100 and No. 111 deal specifically with discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.

Promoting gender equality through independently elected worker representation  

• Women workers face barriers in participating in worker representation or taking on leadership positions. These include

• Gender stereotypes that cast men as leader and cultural bias that discourages women from aspiring to leadership positions or supporting women leaders. 

• Limited opportunities to access with public spaces, travel or participate in social interactions, particularly men. This inhibits women’s ability to attend meetings regularly and take prominent leadership roles. 

• Domestic responsibilities make it particularly challenging to find the time, energy and alternative caring arrangements to engage in local worker representative work. 

• Lack of awareness about the benefits of participation.

Enabling women's representation in the workplace

Companies seeking to make progress on their ambitions and goals on diversity and gender equality in the workplace should help to ensure that freedom of association and collective bargaining activities are designed to include and support women. This can include the following:

• Reviewing supplier company policies and collective bargaining initiatives to understand how the supplier helps women to engage with their elected representatives or trades union. For example, you could identify whether the policies state a clear position on women’s equality and the role of trade unions in advancing gender-sensitive solutions to work-related issues.
• Supporting women who begin organising and forge links with the trade union movement by raising awareness of the benefits of becoming union members.
• Promoting an inclusive environment through policy, codes of conduct, business relationships, awareness-raising and education initiatives, whereby women are free to:
  • Raise concerns without fear of reprisal
  • Gather freely to discuss collective concerns and ideas
  • Develop and participate their own programmes 
  • Negotiate for pay, labour conditions and terms of employment and meet their needs.

• Investing in capacity-building programmes at worker, supervisor and management level, in order to help women advance in the workplace and voice their concerns to union representatives.
• Building the awareness and capacity of suppliers on the role of elected worker representatives - both men and women - to better understand and address gender issues in the workplace. For example:
  • Equal pay for equal work and pay that reflects the worker’s role, experience and skill level
  • Maternity leave and workplace considerations for pregnant women (e.g. offering convenient shifts and avoiding tasks or situations that could be detrimental to her health, such as heavy lifting or long periods of standing).
  • “Return to work” policies and workplace arrangements - either after pregnancy or for women returning to work after a longer absence
  • Development and promotion opportunities for women
  • Sufficient provisions for health concerns, such as work-related issues relating to fertility, menstruation (including the provision of sanitary hygiene disposal facilities), menopause, breast cancer or hysterectomy.
  • Policies to prevent sexual harassment and violence against women in the workplace
  • Efforts to help women balance their domestic responsibilities with work.
• Encourage women-only spaces such as a women’s committee within a mixed gender trade union, or a gender committee in the workplace, so that women can discuss the issues that matter most to them.

Women's representation

Where there is a trade union or an independently elected worker representation group that is able to undertake training on workplace gender-related issues, this union or group can play a role in communicating with workers, educating the workforce and solving issues on the ground. They will also be able to collect information on recurring problems affecting women, such as sexual harassment or chemical safety. As elected representatives, they could help to design confidential surveys on workers health and safety concerns, and raise awareness of new initiatives and campaigns.

Gender occupational safety and health

In the workplace, personal protective equipment and machinery are typically designed and sized for men. Gender Occupational Safety and Health (GOSH) is an approach to workplace health and safety that considers both male and female workers’ needs. Elected representatives or the workplace trade union can help to educate the workforce on this approach, promoting and advancing gender-specific initiatives. This could include:

• Establishing whether there is a trade union or elected representative health and safety consultative structure in the workplace that covers all worker needs including part-time, contracted and temporary workers.

  • Is there a Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee?

  • If there is, are women’s concerns regularly identified and discussed at this consultative forum?

  • Understanding whether health, safety and wellbeing risk assessments take account of the worker’s gender and associated implications (e.g. are women workers engaged in heavy lifting)?

  • Assessing work stations, equipment and personal protective equipment through a gender lens.

  • Including women’s wellbeing as a key topic for consultative forums, with elected representatives raising awareness of the importance of and negotiating with managers for new or improved facilities for pregnant women and new mothers (and their children).

  • Checking whether risks of violence assessed, including concerns about women working alone on or off site, or late into the evening, and whether they access to safe parking or transport home.

  • Asking the supplier whether they recognise that domestic violence affects workers’ wellbeing in the workplace, and should be treated with sensitivity as a workplace health and safety issue?

Gender equality, decent work and the sustainable development goals

In the context of decent work, gender equality can be defined as men and women having access to equal opportunities, being treated and paid equally, and benefitting equally from safe and healthy work environments. In particular, men and women should have equal opportunities to associate freely and engage in collective bargaining, develop their skills and progress in their careers, and enjoy a work-home balance. Women workers should also benefit from policies designed to protect pregnant women and new mothers.

Universal legal rights and protections

The ILO conventions surrounding freedom of association and collective bargaining (No. 87 and No. 98) conventions enshrine the right for all categories of workers, regardless of their gender, to form and join organisations of their own choosing. It is critical to ensure that women, who often represent the majority of workers engaged in less secure forms of work, such as temporary, seasonal, contract, part-time, migrant, self-employment and home-working, have access to these rights.

Universal rights and protections with a gender equality dimension:

• ILO Convention No. 100 on Equal Remuneration (1951): Promotes the principle of equal pay for men and women workers for work of equal value. It applies to basic wages and all other payments, both direct and indirect.

• ILO Convention No.111 on Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) (1958): Requires states to adopt national policies to eliminate discrimination in access to employment, training and working conditions on grounds of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, and to promote equality of opportunity and treatment in employment or occupation.

• ILO Convention No. 156 on Workers with Family Responsibilities (1981): Recognises the need for workers to balance employment and family responsibilities, with the objective of promoting equal treatment and opportunity for men and women employees.

  ILO Convention No. 183 on Maternity Protection (2000): Entitles pregnant workers to maternity leave for a minimum of 14 weeks, of which at least six weeks should be after the birth of their child. Convention No. 183 prohibits dismissal of workers on maternity leave. It entitles women workers to medical benefits and cash payments during maternity leave and nursing breaks during work.

Recommended actions

1. Confirm if ILO conventions have been ratified by the sourcing country – these include:
   1. Gender equality conventions have been ratified by the sourcing country government
   2. Confirm if the conventions for FOA, CB and worker representation have been ratified
2. Map how the conventions are translated into local law and regulation, including:
   1. Weaknesses in law enforcement
   2. Level of labour inspection, adjudication of complaints or even access to legal processes
3. Investigate and identify women’s labour rights social movements that may have links to trade unions or workplace representation. This is useful to eliminate duplication of activity and as a base for collaboration
4. Identify if the sector Global Union Federation has record of International Framework Agreements or activity and campaigns on women’s representation
5. Map the local trades union activity of women’s representation, women’s committees or elected officials to their executive committee
6. Build awareness among suppliers of women workers’ rights and protections
7. Assess the outcomes of your due diligence and worker representation mapping to determine the percentage of women workers in your supply chain
8. Include women worker representation in codes of conduct
9. Promote the representation and participation of women through on-site visits and audit interviews
10. Invest in capacity-building of women worker representatives and/or dedicated committees.