Women/Work: child labour, boardroom quotas

Is child labour wrong?

Bolivia has 1 million child workers – half of them girls. Now they have formed a union to demand respect from a society that doesn't recognise child labour as right or legal. One of the requirements of union membership is that the child workers continue in education. Domestic worker Ana Guadalupe Perez Rosas, 14, and president of the La Paz chapter of the national child labour union UNATSBO, says: "We are an organization of boy and girl child and adolescent workers—shoe shiners, street sellers, domestic workers, construction workers, many different sectors. Above all, we ask the government for protection as workers and that we be treated respectfully by society. Because, the majority of the time we are oppressed. They think that it’s not right for us to work, that our childhood should be for playing and learning. But they don’t want to recognize the reality in Bolivia. The majority of us kids work because our family needs something from us, like helping to put food on the table or to support younger siblings."  http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/09/21/bolivia-child-workers-unionize/. The original article appears here: http://www.wbez.org/episode-segments/2011-09-16/‘ground-shifters’-‘girls-gauntlets’-–-children-unionizing-bolivia-92051.


Belgium's boardroom quotas

In August, Belgium adopted a law to require public enterprises and companies listed on the stock exchange to give women 30 per cent of seats on management boards. The law is likely to come into force next year, when every board member that leaves is to be replaced by a woman until the quota is reached. http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2011/06/articles/be1106021i.htm.

Women/Politics

Sex and power 
It could be another 70 years before women gain equal representation in the British parliament according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), and women are missing from other positions of influence too: http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/news/2011/august/sex-and-power-5-400-women-missing-from-top-jobs/ . The Fawcett Society has produced a detailed response showing that, of 23 cabinet ministers, only 4 are women (a 10-year low), and only 19 of 119 minister positions (16%): http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/documents/Fawcett%20response%20to%20Sex%20and%20Power-%20August%202011.pdf . A UN Women report http://progress.unwomen.org/ shows that 28 of the world's countries have over 30% representation of women in parliament. These include Rwanda (51%), Tanzania (31%), Nepal (33%), Costa Rica (39%), Macedonia (33%) and Spain (34%). They do not include the UK or the USA. Even Afghanistan's parliament has 28% women representatives: http://www.unwomen.org/2011/08/afghanistan-resource-centre-women-parliamentarians/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+unwomen%2Fen+%28UN+Women%29&utm_content=Google+Reader .

Women and peace
Only 1 in 40 signatories to peace deals in the last quarter-century have been women yet women's consent and support are vital to the negotiation and maintenance of peace agreements. No Women No Peace http://www.nowomennopeace.org/the-issue is an organisation set up to campaign for women’s involvement in peace accords and negotiations. 

South Sudan's women
The world's newest country, South Sudan, has a minister for gender, Agnes Lasuba. She talks here about the effects of independence on the country's women: http://www.unwomen.org/2011/07/qa-south-sudans-minister-of-gender-child-and-social-welfare-on-africas-newest-nation-and-its-women/?

utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+unwomen%2Fen+%28UN+Women%29&utm_content=Google+Reader: 

Egyptian women's charter
The women of Egypt have released a charter for women's rights and representations following the revolution, calling, among other things, for 40% representation in ministerial posts in a new parliament, a hand in drawing up the new constitution and constitutional rights to equality, justice and an end to discrimination: http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/charter-egyptian-women-en.pdf    UN Women reports on the release event here: http://www.unwomen.org/2011/06/egypt-womens-charter-released-calling-for-a-democratic-transition/ .

Poland's gender quotas
However, in Poland, politicians are struggling with the new gender quotas they set themselves earlier  this year. There will be a general election in Poland in October, so parties are listing candidates but women are rarely being included in the guaranteed seat slots on party lists. Poland's gender quota regulations are being evaded and the Act appears to be a paper one only, say commentators:

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/08/15/poland-parties-not-so-eager-to-obey-new-gender-quota-act/  .