Equality still elusive as attitudes die hard

Bangkok Post, 30 October 2007

ANURAJ MANIBHANDU

The scandal at the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security shows how far Thailand has yet to go to achieve gender equality, and how important it is for men and women to contribute towards it.

Under reproach is not only the man who was transferred out of his job as the ministry's permanent secretary _ after an initial inquiry found that he used his position to secure sexual favours. Critics also have their eye on his female underlings, who are rumoured to have consented to his approaches in return for career advancement.

Although investigators have yet to establish the truth, the preliminary findings have already put a dent in the record of a ministry that is well-regarded for its acceptance of women bosses.

According to a report released last year by the United Nations Development Programme, the proportion of women in executive positions in the Social Development and Human Security Ministry _ at 38.5% _ is second only to the Commerce Ministry, where they hold 50% of such positions.

By comparison, the Interior Ministry, which ranks lowest, allows only 3.3% of its women to take up executive positions.

If investigators prove true the allegations at the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, critics may well pounce on women executives as being partly to blame. That should not be allowed to happen without a fair hearing of these bosses who work against considerable odds in a male-dominated society.

Besides the inequalities, which abound in the public sector, there is also a problem of attitude, with people more ready to accept men as bosses. Confirmation of this came in a survey that was conducted by Bangkok University and the UNDP, and published as part of last year's UNDP report, ''Women's Right to a Political Voice in Thailand''.

Over 30% of the people surveyed in urban and rural areas _ including 2,987 men and 3,013 women _ thought women were not as capable as men in taking decisions, and over one-third of them did not think women were as good at solving problems.

With such attitudes and inequalities dying hard, it was difficult for Thai listeners not to be envious of the progress of women in Norway, Israel, India and South Africa, and to take heart in the similarities of challenges they are still facing. These countries' women ambassadors in Bangkok _ respectively, Merete Fjeld Brattested, Yael Rubinstein, Latha Reddy and Pearl Nomvume Magaqa _ spoke about the status of their countrywomen at a forum organised by the United Nations Development Fund for Women.

In Norway, women hold 38% of the seats in parliament. In Israel, the figure is 18%, with Daila Itzik rising to become the first female speaker of the Knesset in May 2006. But in India, the world's biggest democracy, women fare as poorly as their Thai counterparts in parliament, holding only 9.2% of the seats in 2004.

In Thailand, only 10.6% of the members of the House of Representatives and Senate elected in 2005 were women.

Most striking in India's case, however, is the reservation of a third of the seats for women in the Panchayati Raj system of self-government at the grassroots.

Ambassador Reddy admitted that these women initially tended to be ''dummies'' for men, but emphasised that they gradually came into their own over the years.

In Thailand, by the UNDP's reckoning, only 3.3% of village heads are women, with women's representation in elected local government bodies being, on average, less than 7% across the country.

In government, Norway led the pack with nine women holding 19 of the cabinet portfolios. South Africa lets women take charge of eight ministries. India has made a significant step forward, by doubling the number of women in the cabinet from four to eight between 1985 and 2001. In Thailand, after the 2005 elections, only one woman was given a cabinet portfolio.

But challenges seem strikingly similar. In Norway, Ambassador Brattested said women outnumber men in the foreign service _ holding 52% of the jobs. But when it comes to senior positions, the figure for women is only 24%.

In Israel, women initially were given only administrative jobs in the defence forces, although the state's founding father David Ben-Gurion had argued that ''true equality'' lay in their joining men in the army. It was not until 1995 that women were allowed to attend flight schools and combat courses.

The odds for women in Norway and Israel bring to mind the overall picture of Thai women in the civil service, where they hold only a quarter of the senior positions, and three quarters of the low-level jobs.

Though at various stages of development, women in the four countries Unifem highlighted at the recent forum join Thai counterparts in struggling with old mindsets.

To go forward, governments have to translate words into deeds, and societies have to agree that men and women should share tasks traditionally not cut out for them.

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