Women’s Day as background to address equality

The nearing of International Women’s Day on March 8, served as background for several lawmakers of the Legislative Assembly to address the topic of the fairness of treatment to different genders and equality of opportunities for everyone.

The first to address the topic during the period before the agenda was lawmaker Ma Io Fong who said that the “achievement of equal opportunities for both sexes is a core value of social development, and an objective and policy of the government, as well as a fundamental national policy promised by the state.”

Adding that the government, with the impulse of society, has been adopting several policies and measures to support the development of women, their role in decision-making “still needs to be elevated.”

Lawmaker Ma thinks that the care for women can start in restrooms, calling on the government to better plan public toilets as well as the requirements for such facilities in large-scale commercial establishments, which he thinks are lacking in the number of facilities dedicated to women.

Another of the examples given by Ma is related to the “difficulty for women to rent sports facilities,” calling for better planning for facilities “oriented for women and children.”

At the decision-making level, the lawmaker noted that in 2021, the number of women in government management and leadership positions, such as members of advisory councils, and judges, among others, have decreased.

Statistics show that some 37.8% of administrative leadership and managerial positions are occupied by women as well as 39.5% of all professional job posts, figures that do not align to the gender proportion of the employed population.

Ma urges the government to increase the proportion of women in its consultative councils, in management positions in the public administration and justice services, or “to create strict indicators on the proportion of women, to draw the attention of society and companies to the capabilities and advantages of the labor market and women’s social participation.”

As a representative of the women’s federation at the AL, lawmaker Wong Kit Cheng also did not let the date pass without a note, taking the opportunity to refer to some of the measures taken by the government that, in her opinion, are women-oriented and contribute towards women’s wellbeing.

Among these she noted the restructuring of the Women’s Affairs Committee that now includes children as well as the new law for the prevention of domestic violence and the establishment of the crime of “sexual harassment.”

In relation to parenthood, Wong noted the extension of maternity leave to 70 days and another five days for paternity leave, as well as the improvement of breastfeeding facilities.

Wong also said that “in fact, women have the responsibility of taking care of the family, but this task must be negotiated and shared between the couple, and have the support of the government, society, and companies. This is the only way to continue to create a favorable environment for the development of women.”

To fight the declining birthrate, she urged the government to improve labor rules to facilitate the return of women, after birth, to the labor market to “increase women’s desire for having children.”