Gender Equality Commissioner: Working to help women re-enter the full-time job market

The goal of the Office of the Commissioner for Gender Equality, as stated by Josie Christodoulou who undertook office with the government of President Nikos Christodoulides, is to establish a proper framework for equality and to convey the message that when there is equality, the society and economy are healthier.

At the same time, staff will receive systematic education on the importance of gender mainstreaming in both ministries and deputy ministries.

In an interview with CNA, the Commissioner for Equality talked about her vision and plan, emphasising that the Office needs to be institutionalised while also stating that each ministry and sub-ministry should create its own plan internally to achieve the goals of the National Strategic Design. Christodoulou also said that "our priority is gender budgeting, the implementation of the gender budget, which I aim to discuss in a forthcoming meeting with the Minister of Finance".

At the same time, she stated that we should start breaking stereotypes and involve men in the struggle for gender equality.

When asked about the situation in Cyprus, Christodoulou said that according to the European Institute for Gender Equality, "unfortunately, we rank 22nd among EU member states. This shows, that we have a long way to go to achieve gender equality."

It appears, she noted, that Cyprus is scoring low numbers, and "these are issues that we should approach with seriousness." She also spoke of policies that can be implemented to move towards substantive and full gender equality.

Asked about the role of the Commissioner and how it can contribute, Christodoulou explained that according to the governance programme of newly elected President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides, "our first goal is to institutionalise the Office of the Commissioner for Gender Equality, that is, to have legislation so that it will not be an ad hoc decision of each president. This specific institution should exist and play a coordinating and executive role in the implementation and application of actions that promote gender equality."

The goal is to have, as it exists today, the strategic planning for gender equality to be overseen by the Office of the Commissioner, which will work in collaboration with all ministries and deputy ministries horizontally so that the government's policies on the subject are applied.

To make this feasible, she said, two weeks ago, the Cabinet decided that every ministry and deputy ministry should appoint specific persons who will deal with gender equality issues and will directly work with her office.

"The goal is for each ministry and deputy ministry to create its own plan internally to achieve the goals of the existing National Strategic Plan, whether they concern issues of justice, foreign policy, labour, education, among many others, as gender dimension concerns all horizontal issues, not just women."

The Commissioner for Equality told CNA “we want to promote specific policies, specific courses, and programmes that promote gender equality, respect between the two genders, and to combat violence against women, which is a scourge that affects our country. At the same time, staff will receive systematic education on the importance of gender mainstreaming in both ministries and deputy ministries.

In this direction, she added, "we will move towards the prevention and combat of violence, and here it is important to say that we will work holistically, cyclically, if you will, and not fragmentally because one issue affects the other”.

While working for the protection of women, in prevention issues, at the same time we must also work with children and young people because that is where gender culture must be created, if we are to have no victims of violence, Christodoulou said.

Asked to refer to concrete policies, she talked about the labour issue and stressed that those who work part-time are mainly women. She explained that due to the lack of a welfare state, where essential childcare structures for parents would have been in place as well as for the elderly and people with disabilities, what we see in Cyprus at the moment is that women choose to work part-time, "since they have nowhere to leave their children, elderly or disabled and because as stereotypes they are the ones who take care of these people.”

Through Nikos Christodoulides’ governance programme, she said, we “aspire to create, where necessary, substantial care structures where parents can leave their children with confidence for more hours of the day, so that parents, especially mothers, can re-enter the full-time job market."

To a remark that gender equality affects men as well, Christodoulou agreed and stated that one of the goals is "to work in such a way that men also become part of this effort, to break stereotypes”.

She went on to say that “you know, today, we can assign many roles to a woman, the role of an employee, a wife, a daughter, a grandmother, while for men we usually say that they are the workers. And I believe," she said, "that this also negatively affects our society because men can play a huge role as fathers, and we should acknowledge this, not only recognise it but also promote it. So we need to start breaking stereotypes, talking about parents, getting men involved in the fight for gender equality, and playing a greater role in the equitable distribution of ‘invisible care’ and household work."

Christodoulou went on to tell CNA that it “would be great to manage to create these structures and free women of the various burdens they undertake by taking care of minors, the elderly or the disabled. However, we are not breaking stereotypes since they will continue to have the so-called 'second shift', the ‘invisible work’ at home after the day is over. If we break stereotypes, we will be able to see men playing a more active role in the equal distribution of responsibilities at home."

When asked about the private sector, she said that she will start a round of meetings with social partners. There is already cooperation through the Employment Committee of the Ministry of Labour "because the wage gap concerns mainly the private sector. Sexual harassment concerns both the public and private sectors. Therefore, we need to find ways to work together with social partners."

As an example, one policy that could be implemented is to set up crèches that will cover a number of firms so that workers in private companies can have childcare facilities that can help both men and women.

Regarding the pay gap, she noted, "we will have to work more intensively. We need to talk further with the social partners, find good practices from other countries that we can adopt and promote specific policies in this direction”. One example, she said, which concerns policies of President Christodoulides' administration, is together with the social partners, in cooperation with private companies, to help the Office of the Commissioner for Gender Equality to create an action plan for gender equality.

Christodoulou said the EU is asking many organisations to create an internal policy that will promote these issues. “And we, as Officer of the Commissioner for Gender Equality, will work with the private sector through common actions and other ways to prepare internal policies to promote the matter”.

She said the EU has passed a directive establishing quotas for gender representation in companies listed in the stock exchange. Where there are less men or women in the boards of these companies, they will need to take action to have women represented at decision making centres.

In response to a remark on how all these can be implemented from words into practice, Christodoulou said she was a member of the civil society in the past where she systematically exercised constructive criticism of the respective government.

"This time I am in a position where I have a vision and a plan to implement it," she added. The positive thing she sees at the moment is that there is firstly the political will of the President of the Republic, and from the contacts, she has had so far with various ministers and deputy ministers, there is also political will at that level.

Therefore if we manage to make the system work with everything that I have described using a holistic approach, the Office of the Commissioner will play a coordinating role, and “I believe positive steps will be taken.”

She also said she is very well aware of the obstacles and impediments. We live in a patriarchal society and I know that it is a patriarchal system that constantly puts obstacles in your way, some visible, some invisible."

Christodoulou also said that "our priority is gender budgeting, the implementation of the gender budget, which I aim to discuss in a forthcoming meeting with the Minister of Finance".

Her office, she said, is already in contact with the European Institute for Gender Equality "to give us a know-how and direction on how we use this tool because it is quite a technical issue, how it can also be implemented in Cyprus".

She explained that the gender budget is quite simply "to have a budget and to ensure that it is used in such a way that it has an equal impact on men and women and on the entire population of the country”.

Asked what message she would like to convey, Christodoulou said her office will always be open.

“I will be constantly informing society what gender equality means, what discrimination means, when is discrimination conscious and when is discrimination unconscious”, she said.

Her Office will “intervene there and wherever possible so that corrective actions can be taken, but we will place more emphasis on preventive actions and the implementation of legislation”. Most importantly, she said, “we will be constantly in dialogue, open communication with civil society, in cooperation with all ministries and deputy ministries in order to promote, to put equality in a proper framework, to pass on the messages that when there is gender equality we are talking about a stronger economy and a healthier society with positive effects not only for our women, men and children but we will live without stereotypes and prejudices.”

(Source: CNA)