Gender equality between aspirations and realities

It is estimated that the total number of domestic workers could be as high as 100 million. In developing countries, they make up at least 4 to 12 per cent of wage employment. Another significant aspect to be emphasized is that around 83 per cent of these workers are women or girls.

The ILO Convention defines domestic work as work performed in or for a household or households. While the new instrument covers all domestic workers, it provides for special measures to protect those workers who, because of their young age or nationality or live-in status, may be exposed to additional risks relative to their peers, among others.

In conformity with ILO proceedings, this new Convention will come into force after two countries have ratified it. Its implementation in good faith will be a serious test not only for individual states, but also for the world community as a whole.

Meanwhile, the concept of equality of opportunity on the public agenda will continue to inspire various initiatives to be taken by civil society. It has an important role to play in fighting inequalities between genders.

It is not enough to adopt laws that guarantee equal participation of women in the economic and social life, knowing that in practice professional segregation of women persists, and is proven by the very existence of sex-related occupation patterns leading to disturbing differences in income between men and women.

Moreover, even in cases when there is appropriate legislation that addresses gender imbalances, women themselves risk to miss out because of poor information about their rights.

Quite frequently, the NGOs are not sufficiently active in the process of social dialogue and their efforts do not lead to radical transformations. On the contrary, some NGOs are marginalised and cannot play a dynamic role in changing obsolete mentalities, which are not in harmony with the current requirements of gender equality.

The absence of an authentic democratic framework in some countries may also contribute to some misogynist attitudes and practices, which favour flagrant gender inequality. The public silence, which surrounds these realities, makes even more difficult the task of finding appropriate law-based solutions.

On the other hand, it would be utopian to expect simple or easy solutions to complex negative realities.There is a need to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.Under the current era of global vulnerability the urgency of eliminating gender discrimination  in all its forms and at all levels has to be generally recognised. Perhaps the prophetic words of Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel Prize Laureate for literature (1913) whose 150th anniversary is celebrated world-wide in 2011 might indicate the right orientation. The need  to cooperate at the global level to reach gender equality might be relevant under circumstances : "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.''