A non-governmental organization (NGO), the Women Safe House Sustenance Initiative, has urged government and community leaders to create policies that support and encourage the payment of stipends or allowances to women working in family businesses, the informal sector, and unpaid employment.
Members of the NGO and their resource persons made this plea on Saturday in Ibadan during the organization’s dissemination program themed ‘Advocacy for Women in Informal and Unpaid Employment.’
According to the program coordinator of the NGO, Dr. Omowumi Okedare, prior to the event, they interviewed women in selected communities in Ibadan North and Ibadan Northeast local government areas of Oyo State to gather their thoughts and experiences regarding the project’s theme.
Okedare stated that the essence of the project is to enlighten men and communities on the benefits of allowing women to work, either for the family or elsewhere, and ensuring they are duly compensated with an allowance commensurate to their work.
She lamented that many women spend most of their time in family businesses or unpaid employment without receiving payment for their work. She added that women aspire to be more than wives and mothers; they have dreams and aspirations like everyone else.
“Oftentimes, it is not that the woman does not want to work, but her husband wants her to be a housewife. In that case, the husband should be responsible for placing her on a salary,” Okedare said.
According to the NGO, the Nigerian constitution gives men and women equal rights to work and earn, which is why they are fighting against the discrimination of women in unpaid employment. The NGO added that such unfair practices are the leading causes of sexual abuse and domestic violence.
The founder of Whoopy Yun Foundation and one of the volunteers at the event, Omobolanle Adedeji, said the project aimed to expose the impact of what people and society have done and are still doing in discriminating against women in family businesses and unpaid employment.
She stressed that the negative impacts of not allowing a woman to work or not paying a woman that works are the reasons why there are many broken homes and vices in society.
“Women have some level of aspirations to fulfill,” Adedeji said, adding, “One thing that works for women is comfortability. When a woman is not comfortable, there will be rifts in the family.”
Dr. Rosemary Odigbo of the Centre for Women in Unpaid and Informal Employment in Nigeria (WIIEN), Oyo State chapter, anchored the ‘The Policy to Be Implemented as Leaders’ session. During the session, some community, religious, and NGO leaders present at the event suggested ways the problems facing women in informal and unpaid employment can be addressed.
In the course of the event, some documentary videos were displayed, showing women narrating their stories and experiences as people in informal and unpaid employment.
Also present at the event were Adekemi Akintade, president of the Association of Women Orientation in Sustainable Development in Nigeria; some community and religious leaders, and some women in informal employment.
While appreciating the partners of the event – Urgent Action Fund Africa for Women’s Human Rights, Whoopy Yun Foundation, and the Centre for Women in Unpaid and Informal Employment in Nigeria (WIIEN) − Okedare urged community and religious leaders to ensure that the rights to work or employment for women in their areas are protected.
She said that the comments, suggestions, reports, testimonies, and inputs of the participants at the events would be drafted into a policy brief that would be sent to the appropriate stakeholders and government agencies in the state.
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