The Fourth World Conference on Women
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Chapter 1. Resolution 1. Annex II - The Beijing Platform for Action
IV. Strategic Objectives and Actions
F. Women and the economy
Strategic objective F.1.
Strategic objective F.2.
Strategic objective F.3.
Strategic objective F.4.
Strategic objective F.5.
Strategic objective F.6.
150. There are considerable differences in women's and men's access to and
opportunities to exert power over economic structures in their societies. In most parts of
the world, women are virtually absent from or are poorly represented in economic
decision-making, including the formulation of financial, monetary, commercial and other
economic policies, as well as tax systems and rules governing pay. Since it is often
within the framework of such policies that individual men and women make their decisions,
inter alia, on how to divide their time between remunerated and unremunerated work, the
actual development of these economic structures and policies has a direct impact on
women's and men's access to economic resources, their economic power and consequently the
extent of equality between them at the individual and family levels as well as in society
as a whole.
151. In many regions, women's participation in remunerated work in the
formal and non-formal labour market has increased significantly and has changed during the
past decade. While women continue to work in agriculture and fisheries, they have also
become increasingly involved in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and, in some
cases, have become more dominant in the expanding informal sector. Due to, inter alia,
difficult economic situations and a lack of bargaining power resulting from gender
inequality, many women have been forced to accept low pay and poor working conditions and
thus have often become preferred workers. On the other hand, women have entered the
workforce increasingly by choice when they have become aware of and demanded their rights.
Some have succeeded in entering and advancing in the workplace and improving their pay and
working conditions. However, women have been particularly affected by the economic
situation and restructuring processes, which have changed the nature of employment and, in
some cases, have led to a loss of jobs, even for professional and skilled women. In
addition, many women have entered the informal sector owing to the lack of other
opportunities. Women's participation and gender concerns are still largely absent from and
should be integrated in the policy formulation process of the multilateral institutions
that define the terms and, in cooperation with Governments, set the goals of structural
adjustment programmes, loans andgrants.
152. Discrimination in education and training, hiring and remuneration,
promotion and horizontal mobility practices, as well as inflexible working conditions,
lack of access to productive resources and inadequate sharing of family responsibilities,
combined with a lack of or insufficient services such as child care, continue to restrict
employment, economic, professional and other opportunities and mobility for women and make
their involvement stressful. Moreover, attitudinal obstacles inhibit women's participation
in developing economic policy and in some regions restrict the access of women and girls
to education and training for economic management.
153. Women's share in the labour force continues to rise and almost
everywhere women are working more outside the household, although there has not been a
parallel lightening of responsibility for unremunerated work in the household and
community. Women's income is becoming increasingly necessary to households of all types.
In some regions, there has been a growth in women's entrepreneurship and other
self-reliant activities, particularly in the informal sector. In many countries, women are
the majority of workers in non-standard work, such as temporary, casual, multiple
part-time, contract and home-based employment.
154. Women migrant workers, including domestic workers, contribute to the
economy of the sending country through their remittances and also to the economy of the
receiving country through their participation in the labour force. However, in many
receiving countries, migrant women experience higher levels of unemployment compared with
both non-migrant workers and male migrant workers.
155. Insufficient attention to gender analysis has meant that women's
contributions and concerns remain too often ignored in economic structures, such as
financial markets and institutions, labour markets, economics as an academic discipline,
economic and social infrastructure, taxation and social security systems, as well as in
families and households. As a result, many policies and programmes may continue to
contribute to inequalities between women and men. Where progress has been made in
integrating gender perspectives, programme and policy effectiveness has also been
enhanced.
156. Although many women have advanced in economic structures, for the
majority of women, particularly those who face additional barriers, continuing obstacles
have hindered their ability to achieve economic autonomy and to ensure sustainable
livelihoods for themselves and their dependants. Women are active in a variety of economic
areas, which they often combine, ranging from wage labour and subsistence farming and
fishing to the informal sector. However, legal and customary barriers to ownership of or
access to land, natural resources, capital, credit, technology and other means of
production, as well as wage differentials, contribute to impeding the economic progress of
women. Women contribute to development not only through remunerated work but also through
a great deal of unremunerated work. On the one hand, women participate in the production
of goods and services for the market and household consumption, in agriculture, food
production or family enterprises. Though included in the United Nations System of National
Accounts and therefore in international standards for labour statistics, this
unremunerated work - particularly that related to agriculture - is often undervalued and
under-recorded. On the other hand, women still also perform the great majority of
unremunerated domestic work and community work, such as caring for children and older
persons, preparing food for the family, protecting the environment and providing voluntary
assistance to vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals and groups. This work is often not
measured in quantitative terms and is not valued in national accounts. Women's
contribution to development is seriously underestimated, and thus its social recognition
is limited. The full visibility of the type, extent and distribution of this unremunerated
work will also contribute to a better sharing of responsibilities.
157. Although some new employment opportunities have been created for
women as a result of the globalization of the economy, there are also trends that have
exacerbated inequalities between women and men. At the same time, globalization, including
economic integration, can create pressures on the employment situation of women to adjust
to new circumstances and to find new sources of employment as patterns of trade change.
More analysis needs to be done of the impact of globalization on women's economic status.
158. These trends have been characterized by low wages, little or no
labour standards protection, poor working conditions, particularly with regard to women's
occupational health and safety, low skill levels, and a lack of job security and social
security, in both the formal and informal sectors. Women's unemployment is a serious and
increasing problem in many countries and sectors. Young workers in the informal and rural
sectors and migrant female workers remain the least protected by labour and immigration
laws. Women, particularly those who are heads of households with young children, are
limited in their employment opportunities for reasons that include inflexible working
conditions and inadequate sharing, by men and by society, of family responsibilities.
159. In countries that are undergoing fundamental political, economic and
social transformation, the skills of women, if better utilized, could constitute a major
contribution to the economic life of their respective countries. Their input should
continue to be developed and supported and their potential further realized.
160. Lack of employment in the private sector and reductions in public
services and public service jobs have affected women disproportionately. In some
countries, women take on more unpaid work, such as the care of children and those who are
ill or elderly, compensating for lost household income, particularly when public services
are not available. In many cases, employment creation strategies have not paid sufficient
attention to occupations and sectors where women predominate; nor have they adequately
promoted the access of women to those occupations and sectors that are traditionally male.
161. For those women in paid work, many experience obstacles that prevent
them from achieving their potential. While some are increasingly found in lower levels of
management, attitudinal discrimination often prevents them from being promoted further.
The experience of sexual harassment is an affront to a worker's dignity and prevents women
from making a contribution commensurate with their abilities. The lack of a
family-friendly work environment, including a lack of appropriate and affordable child
care, and inflexible working hours further prevent women from achieving their full
potential.
162. In the private sector, including transnational and national
enterprises, women are largely absent from management and policy levels, denoting
discriminatory hiring and promotion policies and practices. The unfavourable work
environment as well as the limited number of employment opportunities available have led
many women to seek alternatives. Women have increasingly become self-employed and owners
and managers of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises. The expansion of the informal
sector, in many countries, and of self-organized and independent enterprises is in large
part due to women, whose collaborative, self-help and traditional practices and
initiatives in production and trade represent a vital economic resource. When they gain
access to and control over capital, credit and other resources, technology and training,
women can increase production, marketing and income for sustainable development.
163. Taking into account the fact that continuing inequalities and
noticeable progress coexist, rethinking employment policies is necessary in order to
integrate the gender perspective and to draw attention to a wider range of opportunities
as well as to address any negative gender implications of current patterns of work and
employment. To realize fully equality between women and men in their contribution to the
economy, active efforts are required for equal recognition and appreciation of the
influence that the work, experience, knowledge and values of both women and men have in
society.
164. In addressing the economic potential and independence of women,
Governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming
a gender perspective in all policies and programmes so that before decisions are taken, an
analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively.
Promote women's economic rights and independence, including access to
employment, appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources
Actions to be taken
165. By Governments:
(a) Enact and enforce legislation to guarantee the rights of women and men to equal pay
for equal work or work of equal value;
(b) Adopt and implement laws against discrimination based on sex in the labour market,
especially considering older women workers, hiring and promotion, the extension of
employment benefits and social security, and working conditions;
(c) Eliminate discriminatory practices by employers and take appropriate measures in
consideration of women's reproductive role and functions, such as the denial of employment
and dismissal due to pregnancy or breast-feeding, or requiring proof of contraceptive use,
and take effective measures to ensure that pregnant women, women on maternity leave or
women re-entering the labour market after childbearing are not discriminated against;
(d) Devise mechanisms and take positive action to enable women to gain access to full and
equal participation in the formulation of policies and definition of structures through
such bodies as ministries of finance and trade, national economic commissions, economic
research institutes and other key agencies, as well as through their participation in
appropriate international bodies;
(e) Undertake legislation and administrative reforms to give women equal rights with men
to economic resources, including access to ownership and control over land and other forms
of property, credit, inheritance, natural resources and appropriate new technology;
(f) Conduct reviews of national income and inheritance tax and social security systems to
eliminate any existing bias against women;
(g) Seek to develop a more comprehensive knowledge of work and employment through, inter
alia, efforts to measure and better understand the type, extent and distribution of
unremunerated work, particularly work in caring for dependants and unremunerated work done
for family farms or businesses, and encourage the sharing and dissemination of information
on studies and experience in this field, including the development of methods for
assessing its value in quantitative terms, for possible reflection in accounts that may be
produced separately from, but consistent with, core national accounts;
(h) Review and amend laws governing the operation of financial institutions to ensure that
they provide services to women and men on an equal basis;
(i) Facilitate, at appropriate levels, more open and transparent budget processes;
(j) Revise and implement national policies that support the traditional savings, credit
and lending mechanisms for women;
(k) Seek to ensure that national policies related to international and regional trade
agreements do not have an adverse impact on women's new and traditional economic
activities;
(l) Ensure that all corporations, including transnational corporations, comply with
national laws and codes, social security regulations, applicable international agreements,
instruments and conventions, including those related to the environment, and other
relevant laws;
(m) Adjust employment policies to facilitate the restructuring of work patterns in order
to promote the sharing of family responsibilities;
(n) Establish mechanisms and other forums to enable women entrepreneurs and women workers
to contribute to the formulation of policies and programmes being developed by economic
ministries and financial institutions;
(o) Enact and enforce equal opportunity laws, take positive action and ensure compliance
by the public and private sectors through various means;
(p) Use gender-impact analyses in the development of macro and micro- economic and social
policies in order to monitor such impact and restructure policies in cases where harmful
impact occurs;
(q) Promote gender-sensitive policies and measures to empower women as equal partners with
men in technical, managerial and entrepreneurial fields;
(r) Reform laws or enact national policies that support the establishment of labour laws
to ensure the protection of all women workers, including safe work practices, the right to
organize and access to justice.
Facilitate women's equal access to resources, employment, markets and
trade Actions to be taken
166. By Governments:
(a) Promote and support women's self-employment and the development of small enterprises,
and strengthen women's access to credit and capital on appropriate terms equal to those of
men through the scaling-up of institutions dedicated to promoting women's
entrepreneurship, including, as appropriate, non-traditional and mutual credit schemes, as
well as innovative linkages with financial institutions;
(b) Strengthen the incentive role of the State as employer to develop a policy of equal
opportunities for women and men;
(c) Enhance, at the national and local levels, rural women's income- generating potential
by facilitating their equal access to and control over productive resources, land, credit,
capital, property rights, development programmes and cooperative structures;
(d) Promote and strengthen micro-enterprises, new small businesses, cooperative
enterprises, expanded markets and other employment opportunities and, where appropriate,
facilitate the transition from the informal to the formal sector, especially in rural
areas;
(e) Create and modify programmes and policies that recognize and strengthen women's vital
role in food security and provide paid and unpaid women producers, especially those
involved in food production, such as farming, fishing and aquaculture, as well as urban
enterprises, with equal access to appropriate technologies, transportation, extension
services, marketing and credit facilities at the local and community levels;
(f) Establish appropriate mechanisms and encourage intersectoral institutions that enable
women's cooperatives to optimize access to necessary services;
(g) Increase the proportion of women extension workers and other government personnel who
provide technical assistance or administer economic programmes;
(h) Review, reformulate, if necessary, and implement policies, including business,
commercial and contract law and government regulations, to ensure that they do not
discriminate against micro, small and medium-scale enterprises owned by women in rural and
urban areas;
(i) Analyse, advise on, coordinate and implement policies that integrate the needs and
interests of employed, self-employed and entrepreneurial women into sectoral and
inter-ministerial policies, programmes and budgets;
(j) Ensure equal access for women to effective job training, retraining, counselling and
placement services that are not limited to traditional employment areas;
(k) Remove policy and regulatory obstacles faced by women in social and development
programmes that discourage private and individual initiative;
(l) Safeguard and promote respect for basic workers' rights, including the prohibition of
forced labour and child labour, freedom of association and the right to organize and
bargain collectively, equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value and
non-discrimination in employment, fully implementing the conventions of the International
Labour Organization in the case of States Parties to those conventions and, taking into
account the principles embodied in the case of those countries that are not parties to
those conventions in order to achieve truly sustained economic growth and sustainable
development.
167. By Governments, central banks and national development banks, and
private banking institutions, as appropriate:
(a) Increase the participation of women, including women entrepreneurs, in advisory boards
and other forums to enable women entrepreneurs from all sectors and their organizations to
contribute to the formulation and review of policies and programmes being developed by
economic ministries and banking institutions;
(b) Mobilize the banking sector to increase lending and refinancing through incentives and
the development of intermediaries that serve the needs of women entrepreneurs and
producers in both rural and urban areas, and include women in their leadership, planning
and decision-making;
(c) Structure services to reach rural and urban women involved in micro, small and
medium-scale enterprises, with special attention to young women, low-income women, those
belonging to ethnic and racial minorities, and indigenous women who lack access to capital
and assets; and expand women's access to financial markets by identifying and encouraging
financial supervisory and regulatory reforms that support financial institutions' direct
and indirect efforts to better meet the credit and other financial needs of the micro,
small and medium-scale enterprises of women;
(d) Ensure that women's priorities are included in public investment programmes for
economic infrastructure, such as water and sanitation, electrification and energy
conservation, transport and road construction; promote greater involvement of women
beneficiaries at the project planning and implementation stages to ensure access to jobs
and contracts.
168. By Governments and non-governmental organizations:
(a) Pay special attention to women's needs when disseminating market, trade and resource
information and provide appropriate training in these fields;
(b) Encourage community economic development strategies that build on partnerships among
Governments, and encourage members of civil society to create jobs and address the social
circumstances of individuals, families and communities.
169. By multilateral funders and regional development banks, as well as
bilateral and private funding agencies, at the international, regional and subregional
levels:
(a) Review, where necessary reformulate, and implement policies, programmes and projects,
to ensure that a higher proportion of resources reach women in rural and remote areas;
(b) Develop flexible funding arrangements to finance intermediary institutions that target
women's economic activities, and promote self-sufficiency and increased capacity in and
profitability of women's economic enterprises;
(c) Develop strategies to consolidate and strengthen their assistance to the micro, small
and medium-scale enterprise sector, in order to enhance the opportunities for women to
participate fully and equally and work together to coordinate and enhance the
effectiveness of this sector, drawing upon expertise and financial resources from within
their own organizations as well as from bilateral agencies, Governments and
non-governmental organizations.
170. By international, multilateral and bilateral development cooperation
organizations: Support, through the provision of capital and/or resources, financial
institutions that serve low-income, small and micro-scale women entrepreneurs and
producers in both the formal and informal sectors.
171. By Governments and/or multilateral financial institutions: Review
rules and procedures of formal national and international financial institutions that
obstruct replication of the Grameen Bank prototype, which provides credit facilities to
rural women.
172. By international organizations: Provide adequate support for
programmes and projects designed to promote sustainable and productive entrepreneurial
activities among women, in particular the disadvantaged.
Provide business services, training and access to markets, information
and technology, particularly to low-income women Actions to be taken
173. By Governments in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and
the private sector:
(a) Provide public infrastructure to ensure equal market access for women and men
entrepreneurs;
(b) Develop programmes that provide training and retraining, particularly in new
technologies, and affordable services to women in business management, product
development, financing, production and quality control, marketing and the legal aspects of
business;
(c) Provide outreach programmes to inform low-income and poor women, particularly in rural
and remote areas, of opportunities for market and technology access, and provide
assistance in taking advantage of such opportunities;
(d) Create non-discriminatory support services, including investment funds for women's
businesses, and target women, particularly low- income women, in trade promotion
programmes;
(e) Disseminate information about successful women entrepreneurs in both traditional and
non-traditional economic activities and the skills necessary to achieve success, and
facilitate networking and the exchange of information;
(f) Take measures to ensure equal access of women to ongoing training in the workplace,
including unemployed women, single parents, women re-entering the labour market after an
extended temporary exit from employment owing to family responsibilities and other causes,
and women displaced by new forms of production or by retrenchment, and increase incentives
to enterprises to expand the number of vocational and training centres that provide
training for women in non-traditional areas;
(g) Provide affordable support services, such as high-quality, flexible and affordable
child-care services, that take into account the needs of working men and women.
174. By local, national, regional and international business organizations
and non-governmental organizations concerned with women's issues: Advocate, at all levels,
for the promotion and support of women's businesses and enterprises, including those in
the informal sector, and the equal access of women to productive resources.
Strengthen women's economic capacity and commercial networks
Actions to be taken
175. By Governments:
(a) Adopt policies that support business organizations, non-governmental organizations,
cooperatives, revolving loan funds, credit unions, grass-roots organizations, women's
self-help groups and other groups in order to provide services to women entrepreneurs in
rural and urban areas;
(b) Integrate a gender perspective into all economic restructuring and structural
adjustment policies and design programmes for women who are affected by economic
restructuring, including structural adjustment programmes, and for women who work in the
informal sector;
(c) Adopt policies that create an enabling environment for women's self- help groups,
workers' organizations and cooperatives through non-conventional forms of support and by
recognizing the right to freedom of association and the right to organize;
(d) Support programmes that enhance the self-reliance of special groups of women, such as
young women, women with disabilities, elderly women and women belonging to racial and
ethnic minorities;
(e) Promote gender equality through the promotion of women's studies and through the use
of the results of studies and gender research in all fields, including the economic,
scientific and technological fields;
(f) Support the economic activities of indigenous women, taking into account their
traditional knowledge, so as to improve their situation and development;
(g) Adopt policies to extend or maintain the protection of labour laws and social security
provisions for those who do paid work in the home;
(h) Recognize and encourage the contribution of research by women scientists and
technologists;
(i) Ensure that policies and regulations do not discriminate against micro, small and
medium-scale enterprises run by women.
176. By financial intermediaries, national training institutes, credit
unions, non-governmental organizations, women's associations, professional organizations
and the private sector, as appropriate:
(a) Provide, at the national, regional and international levels, training in a variety of
business-related and financial management and technical skills to enable women, especially
young women, to participate in economic policy-making at those levels;
(b) Provide business services, including marketing and trade information, product design
and innovation, technology transfer and quality, to women's business enterprises,
including those in export sectors of the economy;
(c) Promote technical and commercial links and establish joint ventures among women
entrepreneurs at the national, regional and international levels to support
community-based initiatives;
(d) Strengthen the participation of women, including marginalized women, in production and
marketing cooperatives by providing marketing and financial support, especially in rural
and remote areas;
(e) Promote and strengthen women's micro-enterprises, new small businesses, cooperative
enterprises, expanded markets and other employment opportunities and, where appropriate,
facilitate the transition from the informal to the formal sector, in rural and urban
areas;
(f) Invest capital and develop investment portfolios to finance women's business
enterprises;
(g) Give adequate attention to providing technical assistance, advisory services, training
and retraining for women connected with the entry to the market economy;
(h) Support credit networks and innovative ventures, including traditional savings
schemes;
(i) Provide networking arrangements for entrepreneurial women, including opportunities for
the mentoring of inexperienced women by the more experienced;
(j) Encourage community organizations and public authorities to establish loan pools for
women entrepreneurs, drawing on successful small-scale cooperative models.
177. By the private sector, including transnational and
nationalcorporations:
(a) Adopt policies and establish mechanisms to grant contracts on a non-discriminatory
basis;
(b) Recruit women for leadership, decision-making and management and provide training
programmes, all on an equal basis with men;
(c) Observe national labour, environment, consumer, health and safety laws, particularly
those that affect women.
Eliminate occupational segregation and all forms of employment
discrimination Actions to be taken
178. By Governments, employers, employees, trade unions and women's
organizations:
(a) Implement and enforce laws and regulations and encourage voluntary codes of conduct
that ensure that international labour standards, such as International Labour Organization
Convention No. 100 on equal pay and workers' rights, apply equally to female and male
workers;
(b) Enact and enforce laws and introduce implementing measures, including means of redress
and access to justice in cases of non-compliance, to prohibit direct and indirect
discrimination on grounds of sex, including by reference to marital or family status, in
relation to access to employment, conditions of employment, including training, promotion,
health and safety, as well as termination of employment and social security of workers,
including legal protection against sexual and racial harassment;
(c) Enact and enforce laws and develop workplace policies against gender discrimination in
the labour market, especially considering older women workers, in hiring and promotion,
and in the extension of employment benefits and social security, as well as regarding
discriminatory working conditions and sexual harassment; mechanisms should be developed
for the regular review and monitoring of such laws;
(d) Eliminate discriminatory practices by employers on the basis of women's reproductive
roles and functions, including refusal of employment and dismissal of women due to
pregnancy and breast- feeding responsibilities;
(e) Develop and promote employment programmes and services for women entering and/or
re-entering the labour market, especially poor urban, rural and young women, the
self-employed and those negatively affected by structural adjustment;
(f) Implement and monitor positive public- and private-sector employment, equity and
positive action programmes to address systemic discrimination against women in the labour
force, in particular women with disabilities and women belonging to other disadvantaged
groups, with respect to hiring, retention and promotion, and vocational training of women
in all sectors;
(g) Eliminate occupational segregation, especially by promoting the equal participation of
women in highly skilled jobs and senior management positions, and through other measures,
such as counselling and placement, that stimulate their on-the-job career development and
upward mobility in the labour market, and by stimulating the diversification of
occupational choices by both women and men; encourage women to take up non-traditional
jobs, especially in science and technology, and encourage men to seek employment in the
social sector;
(h) Recognize collective bargaining as a right and as an important mechanism for
eliminating wage inequality for women and to improve working conditions;
(i) Promote the election of women trade union officials and ensure that trade union
officials elected to represent women are given job protection and physical security in
connection with the discharge of their functions;
(j) Ensure access to and develop special programmes to enable women with disabilities to
obtain and retain employment, and ensure access to education and training at all proper
levels, in accordance with the Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for
Persons with Disabilities; 30/ adjust working conditions, to the extent possible, in order
to suit the needs of women with disabilities, who should be assured legal protection
against unfounded job loss on account of their disabilities;
(k) Increase efforts to close the gap between women's and men's pay, take steps to
implement the principle of equal remuneration for equal work of equal value by
strengthening legislation, including compliance with international labour laws and
standards, and encourage job evaluation schemes with gender-neutral criteria;
(l) Establish and/or strengthen mechanisms to adjudicate matters relating to wage
discrimination;
(m) Set specific target dates for eliminating all forms of child labour that are contrary
to accepted international standards and ensure the full enforcement of relevant existing
laws and, where appropriate, enact the legislation necessary to implement the Convention
on the Rights of the Child and International Labour Organization standards, ensuring the
protection of working children, in particular, street children, through the provision of
appropriate health, education and other social services;
(n) Ensure that strategies to eliminate child labour also address the excessive demands
made on some girls for unpaid work in their household and other households, where
applicable;
(o) Review, analyse and, where appropriate, reformulate the wage structures in
female-dominated professions, such as teaching, nursing and child care, with a view to
raising their low status and earnings;
(p) Facilitate the productive employment of documented migrant women (including women who
have been determined refugees according to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of
Refugees) through greater recognition of foreign education and credentials and by adopting
an integrated approach to labour market training that incorporates language training.
Promote harmonization of work and family responsibilities for women
and men Actions to be taken
179. By Governments:
(a) Adopt policies to ensure the appropriate protection of labour laws and social security
benefits for part-time, temporary, seasonal and home-based workers; promote career
development based on work conditions that harmonize work and family responsibilities;
(b) Ensure that full and part-time work can be freely chosen by women and men on an equal
basis, and consider appropriate protection for atypical workers in terms of access to
employment, working conditions and social security;
(c) Ensure, through legislation, incentives and/or encouragement, opportunities for women
and men to take job-protected parental leave and to have parental benefits; promote the
equal sharing of responsibilities for the family by men and women, including through
appropriate legislation, incentives and/or encouragement, and also promote the
facilitation of breast-feeding for working mothers;
(d) Develop policies, inter alia, in education to change attitudes that reinforce the
division of labour based on gender in order to promote the concept of shared family
responsibility for work in the home, particularly in relation to children and elder care;
(e) Improve the development of, and access to, technologies that facilitate occupational
as well as domestic work, encourage self- support, generate income, transform
gender-prescribed roles within the productive process and enable women to move out of
low-paying jobs;
(f) Examine a range of policies and programmes, including social security legislation and
taxation systems, in accordance with national priorities and policies, to determine how to
promote gender equality and flexibility in the way people divide their time between and
derive benefits from education and training, paid employment, family responsibilities,
volunteer activity and other socially useful forms of work, rest and leisure.
180. By Governments, the private sector and non-governmental
organizations, trade unions and the United Nations, as appropriate:
(a) Adopt appropriate measures involving relevant governmental bodies and employers' and
employees' associations so that women and men are able to take temporary leave from
employment, have transferable employment and retirement benefits and make arrangements to
modify work hours without sacrificing their prospects for development and advancement at
work and in their careers;
(b) Design and provide educational programmes through innovative media campaigns and
school and community education programmes to raise awareness on gender equality and
non-stereotyped gender roles of women and men within the family; provide support services
and facilities, such as on-site child care at workplaces and flexible working
arrangements;
(c) Enact and enforce laws against sexual and other forms of harassment in all workplaces.
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