Managing Equality
Entrepreneur action towards equality

Promoting gender equality among employers
ILO Gender News spoke to the Secretary-General of the International Organization of Employers (IOE), Mr. Antonio Peñalosa, on the role of gender equality in the organisation’s work.

How important is gender equality to the mandate of the IOE?

The IOE, as the recognised voice of the business community at theinternational level, follows the gender debate very closely. The issue of gender equality has many facets but at its core is the importance of ensuring that women and men are provided with equal opportunities to participate in economic activity. For employers’ organisations and their members, this makes both common and business sense. As markets expand and the need for competitiveness and flexibility increases, so too does the importance of ensuring that all who wish to do so are permitted to contribute to local economic growth, including both women and men.

Could you identify one area in particular where the IOE is making particular efforts to address gender equality?

One of the IOE’s core missions is to promote enterprise creation and development and we recognise the increasing importance of women’s entrepreneurship in this endeavour. Women-owned enterprises are, more and more, seen as significant business entities that contribute to the creation of jobs and as valuable vehicles for poverty reduction for individuals, families and communities throughout the world. It is therefore important that the IOE supports its members in the promotion of women’s entrepreneurship.

What has the IOE achieved in this respect?

The IOE has recently worked very closely with the ILO in the development of a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Toolkit whose purpose is to help employers’ organisations reach out to employers, represent and advocate on their behalf and, if feasible, provide services that meet their needs. An important plank of this Toolkit is the Female-Male Operated Small Enterprises (FAMOS) tool. The FAMOS tool guides an organisation’s internal assessment of how it serves the needs of female and male operated small enterprises as clients. It helps to determine whether an employers’ organisation is responsive to women in the key areas of its operations. This tool and the importance of its application were also addressed at an SME Toolkit workshop in February this year to which many employers organisations specifically invited member associations of women’s entrepreneurs and businesses.

In addition, the IOE is also working closely with the ILO on a programme aimed at enhancing the role of employers’ organisations in promoting women’s entrepreneurship, women-owned businesses and the private sector in Africa. Similar to the SME Toolkit, one of the key objectives of the programme is to build the capacity of employers’ organisation to represent women entrepreneurs.

How valuable is this kind of collaboration to the IOE?

Building the capacity of employers’ organisations to better represent women entrepreneurs, and women-owned businesses, has a signifi cant value in itself given the unquestionable benefi ts for all parties involved.

On the one hand, making employers’ organisation more sensitive to, and supportive of, women’s entrepreneurship can increase the likelihood of women-operated enterprises joining and attracting existing women’s business associations as constituents or associated members. Employers’ organisations, therefore, benefi t from the increase in membership. By increasing their membership and building strategic partnership and alliances with women-owned businesses, not only is the representativity of the employers’ organisation enhanced but its institutional capacity to negotiate and participate in national policy formulation processes is also strengthened.

On the other hand, employers’ organisations can help address the unique challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Women entrepreneurs can benefit greatly from being associated with, and connected to, dynamic and member based organisations, which can provide them with greater access to important support in the areas of lobbying, policy-making and advisory and business-related services. There are also opportunities for employers’ organisations to provide a range of specific initiatives and support services tailored to suit the specific needs and circumstances of both women and men.

How important is International Women’s Day to the work of the IOE?

International Women’s Day underscores the importance of addressing the particular barriers faced by women in participating in economic activity. For its part, the IOE will continue to look for opportunities to support its members and contribute to this debate.

 

Source: ILO Gender News. Special Issue – International Women's Day, 8 March 2006

 

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