Director of Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University gives lecture on global gender, work disparities

04/17/09 - Last night students and professors crammed into the University of Rhode Island's Swan Hall Auditorium to hear guest speaker, Dr. Jody Heymann, PhD.Heymann received her Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School and has advised both the U.S. Senate the World Health Organization

As the founding director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University, she gave a presentation titled 'Meeting the Needs of Working Families: Getting to the Core of Global Gender Inequalities.' The Women's Studies Program hosted the Eleanor M. Carlson lecture, also part of the 2009 Spring Honors Colloquium.

Heymann discussed issues within the global workforce, with a focus on gender disparities and the decreasing quality of childcare and working conditions. She also presented data gathered from various studies she has collected during her 100,00 miles of yearly travel.

More than 170 countries 55,000 households from areas such as Russia, Botswana, Mexico and Brazil were included in the study.

According to Heymann, 58 percent of parents in Mexico live on a salary of less than $10 a day and face a loss of income due to caring for their children. Some children are left home alone while their parents work long hours in attempts to earn enough money to survive.

Heymann found that more than 930 million children under 15-years-old are being brought up in families where the adults leave them to work.

"It is estimated that 340 million of the world's children under six live in households in which all adults work for pay," Heymann said.

Giving the example of Gabriella, a 19-year-old girl living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Heymann explained the dire living situation - especially for women, on a worldwide scale.

During the time Heymann spent with Gabriella, she learned she was forced to work 15 to 22 hours a day, seven days of the week. Her total earnings by the end of the week were a mere $6, not nearly enough to support her toddler.

One of the most important aspects of Gabriella's story was how she and many other women around the globe leave their infants home alone. Heymann, who had at the time, believed that she had truly seen it all, said she was blown away by this.

"I had no idea that people were in such positions that they would leave their one or two year olds home alone," Heymann said.

After making this revelation, Heymann pursued the issue in search for an explanation as to how common it is for families to undergo similar situations.

Her study also revealed that the occurrences of workingwomen are becoming more frequent in countries throughout the world. Compared to 1960, North America has had a 31 to 46 percent increase of women working in the labor force. Northern Africa jumped from 23 to 31 percent and Central America increased from 16 to 33 percent.

The numerical increases of these percentages may not seem significant but the effects they are triggering in familial care is staggering. As a result of the increasing workingwomen, the population of children lacking proper care is significantly increasing. Because women are working very time-demanding, minimal-paying jobs, infants are being left alone to fend for themselves, a statistic that is especially observed in rural, developing countries. For the majority of these women, childcare provisions are not economically possible for their lifestyle.

"If you're barely earning a living wage, you can't pay a person you hire with a living wage," Heymann said.

She also said that the poor working experiences among various countries she collected data from had striking commonalities.

Statistically, Heymann found that women are 13 percent more likely to miss out on job promotions due to caring for their sick children as compared to the 2 percent of men. Also, women are 43 percent more likely to have their salary reduced for the same reason and men are only 27 percent likely to be in that situation.

"Women carry a disproportionate share of the caregiving burden," Heymann said. "They are also more likely to face inadequate working conditions and social supports."

Heymann also made reference to a link between behavioral issues and children who are continuously abandoned by their working parents on a daily basis.

"Thirty-five percent of parents who had to leave their kids home alone reported their children having behavioral issues," she said.

Heymann also proposed opportunities and risks of labor transformation, urbanization and globalization.

A change in the working force would provide the opportunity of increased gender equality both in and out of the work environment, as well as a means to escape poverty. The major downside, as Heymann pointed out, is parents will be constrained in their availability to provide sufficient care to their children.

Urbanization, though it forces families apart, creates new jobs, therefore boosting the economy. Globalization, the third proposal made by Heymann, provides the opportunity for international organizations to set standards for decent working conditions. It could potentially put pressure on workers, forcing them to accept low paying jobs in poor work conditions, warned Heymann.

Heymann discussed myths of feeding global inaction throughout her presentation and then followed up with her recommendations. One of the most widespread myths is that there is no affordable solution, when in reality the solution is attainable.

"Most of the programs and policies required have self-scaling costs," Heymann said. "Their costs are lower in poor countries than in affluent countries."

Heymann said that the world is in need of a change in order to make progress on the current global gender inequality situation.

"It's a tough time to make change, but it is also the only time the world has made major changes," Heymann said.