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Asian Caucus Report: 1 March 1999, 5 March 1999, 12 March 1999, 16 March 1999

Asian Caucus Report, 12 March 1999

Isis Manila's Luz Maria Martinez sent this report via email. Luz is attending the CSW meeting along with other members of the Asian Caucus, a network of women's organizations that coordinates regional participation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meetings. The Asian Caucus has also initiated preparations for the five-year review of the implementation of the BPFA.


The International Women Count Network was well organized and had an interesting forum which highlighted the need to give women's work value and to incorporate its value into the national accounting.

Shiela Regeher of Canada shared the story how women in Canada began to reject the "not working" category in the national census. Women themselves began to clamor for the recognition of what they do in the home and family raising. The Status of Women National Machinery with the assistance of a research house are making the argument that women's work should not only valued but measured. It is accounting the importance of woman's work through economic value. An example to the importance of this valuing is the work done between a nurse and a bank manager. The nurse's work is more valuable to society yet she makes much less then a bank manager.

Selma James of the United Kingdom brought to the group's attention that Trinidad/Tabago have passed a law to count unwaged work. This law was pushed by the domestic workers who wanted their work to be fairly paid. Spain has also passed a similar legislation.

Adelina Diaz-Uriarte of Peru talked from a rural woman's perspective the amount of work they do and how undervalued their work is. She pointed out that poor women the more they do the less they are paid. A typical rural indigenous woman's daily schedule she says starts at 5:00 a.m. when she gets up to feed the cattle. Immediately she goes home to prepare breakfast, feed the family and goes out to help her husband in the field. Where she stays until its time to cook lunch and feed the men in the field. Afterwards, she returns to feed the backyard animals , then wash clothes at the river (as there is no running water) and proceed back home to cook dinner and feed the family. After dinner, she takes care of the children and may engage in homebased economic work.

According to Diaz-Uriarte, rural life is so poor that many of the women migrate to the city where they become domestic workers there. A typical domestic worker schedule she recounts begins at 6:00 a.m. as she gets up to prepare breakfast and get the children ready for school. After the children finish breakfast she takes her own meal in another room. She then proceeds to prepare the breakfast of the adults and may have to deliver them into different rooms. She washes up afterwards, answers the phone, takes the smaller children to the park, takes care of the familypet, washes clothes, prepare merienda (snacks) and prepares the dinner from 8-9 p.m. Afterwards she is required to clean up before she can retire for the day. As an indigenous poor woman and the leader of the domestic workers movement in Peru she points out that governments are very resistent to acknowledging this work. She says that a bill was introduced in 1996 which passed Congress but died at the desk of President Alberto Fujimori. In the meantime, social security benefits for domestic workers has been suspended by a presidential decree. They are also trying to pass a bill to protect domestic workers from sexual abuse and sexual harassment but it was rejected by the Chamber of Commerce.

Manuju Gardia of India is also an activist on valuing women's work and she said that in India it is the women of the lower caste who are at the lowest sector of work. These women are primarily involved in housework, field work or housework/fieldwork for the landlord. She also recounted the work schedule of women workers which did not differ to much to the Peruvian experience. Manuju said they are fighting for minmium wage.

Andaye of Africa says that they want women's work valued as in the South it is mostly the women who do the field and domestic work. They want to value the work they do as a form of empowerment and to do away with the myth that glorifies microcredit as an empowering tool. By valuing work she says, women will them be able to cut down on the amount they do. It is important to see how women spend their lives to redefine the economy about what kind of work is done rather then in the current abstract market that carries no social benefits.

In Northern Ireland women are planning a full day strike on March 8, 2000 where they hope to make a point that if women are not valued , society and the economy will come to a screeching halt. The point of valuing work the coalition members says is not necessarily for renumeration but that of valuing work. In today's society a persons self-esteem is connected to what they do and valuing woman's work will provide women the recognition of what they do as valuable.

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Asian Caucus Report: 1 March 1999, 5 March 1999, 12 March 1999, 16 March 1999


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