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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND: The International Labour Office (ILO) held a high-level event on ‘A Quantum Leap for Gender Equality: For a Better Future of Work for All’, in honour of International Women’s Day 2019. The event took place at the ILO headquarters in Geneva.
The event consisted of the Oscar-nominated lead actress of the movie Roma, Ms Yalitza Aparicio, Fiji’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan along with Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Mr Guy Ryder, Ms Tanya Cohen, the Chief Executive of Business Unity South Africa; Mr Allen Blue, the Co-Founder of LinkedIn and Ms Mette Schak Dahlmann, a representative from the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions. This high-level panel discussion was moderated by journalist and television presenter, Ms Femi Oke.
The panelists discussed the future of work and the value that women add in the workplaces. Panelists also discussed on the importance of leveraging technology to effectively coordinate work in terms of increasing visibility, connection, effectiveness, efficiency and decision making.
In line with the theme of the high-level event on “Achieving a better future of work for all”, panelists also emphasised on the need to continue working towards changing attitudes, culture and stereotypes, whilst simultaneously reengineering the way the world of work operates, in ensuring gender equality in workplaces.
Ambassador Khan highlighted on the importance of laws that guarantee gender equality at workplaces.
“Laws promoting gender equality are an important first step, but we need to pay close attention to the way in which such laws are being implemented in the workplaces”.
Ambassador Khan shared her experience as the first female prosecutor and first female judge in Fiji. She explained how important it is to change the attitudinal landscape of the workplaces to ensure that it is inclusive and to ensure that women’s voices are heard and that they are equally recognised.
