Gender Inequality in Employment

The United Nations has formulated seven priorities to realise MDG 3. These are;

1. Strengthen opportunities for post primary education for girls
2. Guarantee sexual reproductive Health and Rights
3. Invest in infrastructure to reduce women and girls time burden
4. Guarantee women’s and girls property inheritance and rights
5. Eliminate gender inequality in employment
6. Increase women’s share of seats in national parliament and local Government
7. Combat violence against girls and women.


I came across this information when I recently visited the MDG 3 website.

The priority that I want to comment on is priority number five, “eliminate gender inequality in employment.”

What does gender equality in employment mean to you? To me it simply means recognizing the unique needs of working class men and women and formulating organisational policies and procedures that ensures that no one group is disadvantaged as a result of their gender.

Any one who has experienced gender inequality in employment will agree with me that it is very depressing to the extent that it can affect your self esteem and self confidence.

In Ghana, based on personal experience and interactions with other professional women, I believe that the workplace policies that make women feel marginalized usually centers around remuneration, maternity issues and care giving.

On the issue of remuneration, women with the same skills and competencies as their male counterparts continue to earn less.

Some employers to date still refuse to grant their female staff paid maternity leave. I even know of some highly reputable organizations in Ghana that refuse to grant paid maternity leave to certain categories of their female staff. I experienced this personally years ago whilst working for another organization. I recall that out of frustration I sent a letter to the “Mirror Lawyer” a columnist in the Weekend Mirror newspaper in Ghana. I felt that such a policy that targeted young women like me who wanted a family and a career was unjustified. I wanted to know whether my employer’s action of not granting me paid maternity could be supported by law. The response I received from the mirror lawyer was that legally there was nothing I could do. His advice was that, I consider working for a more gender sensitive firm. Thankfully I am now working at AWDF where policies of this nature do not exist.

Getting maternity leave with or without pay does not end the issue; too often once you resume from maternity leave, your employers may start looking at you differently. You get subtle and sometimes direct messages suggesting that they believe your commitment level has suddenly reduced. I once missed a promotion at a former workplace because I was on maternity leave and the powers that be thought I would not be up to the task upon resumption of work.

Women are the primary care givers, and this is another issue that affects them at the work place. This is especially true when it comes to caring for young children, woe betides you if you have a child who gets sick regularly such that you need to take time off to care for him or her; that can cause you your promotion. A close friend of mine had to resign from her job because of her employers persistent complaints about her taking time off to care for her children.

Is it too much to expect that when a woman resumes from maternity leave her work load be reduced to enable her to leave the office earlier than the rest of the staff? The labour law in most countries actually makes it mandatory for nursing mothers to close earlier so they can care for their babies. It is surprising why this is not practiced in all countries.

In a recent casual conversation with a Director of an organisation on why there were no women Directors in the organisation, his immediate response was that “domestication” had made it difficult for most women to put in the extra hours and commitment required for such positions. I was surprised by the response because actually most women like me, still want the work life balance and know we can make it work if given the opportunity. I certainly do not wish to spend all my time in the office but unfortunately because most of the leadership positions have been, and still continue to be occupied largely by men, the impression has been created that to get to the top women need to choose between their work and families.

Another issue on gender inequality I have come across bothers on payment of medical bills for staff. Believe it or not, some organizations have policies to the effect that, pregnancy is “self induced”, hence antenatal expenses are not included in the medical cover they give to staff. Imagine that! Yet these same organisations claim they are socially responsible. To all these organisations, I say “charity begins at home” so your social responsibilities ought to start with your staff. I have been encouraging my friends who work in organisations with such outdated and retrogressive policies to advocate for change because such policies are discriminatory.

Will organizations take issues of gender inequality at the workplace as seriously as most of them have taken Corporate Social Responsibility? Or countries have to enact laws to force them to do so? What do you think will compel organisations to set up policies that will ensure that women have equal opportunities in employment? What is your own experience?

Gertrude Bibi Annoh-Quarshie
Finance Manager