As the world celebrates the 101st International Women’s Day this month, each one of us can relate in some way to the long and hectic journey women took – through over a decade – to voice, get and maintain their essential rights.
A number of women, nowadays, are getting higher education, career opportunities and financial independence – all of which is essential for their enablement. Still, this put us within the very small percentage of fortunate women.
These privileged women are harvesting the extended efforts of brave, just and vocal women and men who insisted over the past 101 years on changing laws, regulations and social standards to empower women and protect their rights. However, we still have miles to go and lots of discrimination to face even in the most advanced civilizations.
Concurrently, many women are employers of other women: the domestic home workers; who support them manage their domestic needs; clean, cook and take care of their children – enabling them eventually to exemplify the new era of women’s liberation; lead a successful career or pursue higher education while keeping their houses in order.
The published facts and numbers about the domestic workers’ work conditions are petrifying; the abuse these women endure opposes all human rights and enslaves them in the 21st century.
As much as I sincerely value all NGO efforts and government laws to protect domestic workers, I can’t help thinking that it’s predominantly women who are leading these violations against fellow vulnerable women. In our culture, women are the head of the household management.
Today, I ask each one of you in the GCC and across the wider Arab world to reflect for a while on what conduct would you accept from your employer and mirror it on your domestic employee’s conditions: are you willing to bear 18 hours of work with minimal pay… perhaps no weekends? Can you tolerate a withheld passport and restricted personal freedom – even to the point of making a phone call?
How about a smack if you didn’t finish the needed report on time? Will it really drive you to do more and better?
Are you willing to tolerate physical abuse? Would you stay at this job if your rights were violated? Most importantly – how would this impact your feeling of integrity and where would this action rank your employer on the ethical and humanitarian ladder?
Chances are none of this will ever occur; you know much better about your rights, you have more power and leverage than your domestic worker and you work for an organization that won’t tolerate similar actions and will protect you… and you will ask your organization always for more, it’s your right!
Conversely – making this assessment – are you willing to be your self’s employee?
At your own organization, your home, you are the CEO, HR, Legal and Finance Manager – you make the call; you lead the operational culture, implement the values your family adopt and create the work conditions your domestic worker lives in.
You set the rules.
What rules are you setting and where do you rank on that same ladder?
The author is a Marketing & Communications expert who works for an MNC and resides in Dubai