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Linda Sabalini on Women’s Inclusion, Equality
Gender Auditor Linda Sabbarini sheds light on the disproportionate burden of unpaid care, underscoring the need to acknowledge the still-undervalued family and childcare responsibilities and place them on the national agenda, especially in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis After being proven to be a wake-up call for everyone.
Sabalini, half-Palestinian and half-French living in the UAE, said: “It’s not something everyone knows about. But the moment when everyone is in lockdown, one thinks about the amount of unpaid care that women are doing. . So, it would be great if that could be done. “This issue becomes a priority on the national agenda. This is now one of the important topics that the International Labour Organization (ILO) is also discussing, as the pandemic has led to many learning outcomes, especially in unpaid care. “
The 44-year-old Dubai resident stressed her role was not meant to start a fight to replace one gender with another after she was certified by the International Labour Organization as a gender audit. She explained: “People who oppose the concept of gender equality often think it’s women wanting to replace men or women wanting to put men on the side. But that’s not the case. Women and men must be partners in order to achieve economic development and maintain equality. Fundamental human rights. So it’s not about the power of one person over another. It’s about gender equality. Inequality is the result of an imbalance of power, and what we’re looking for is to create an ecosystem where there is a balance of power.
Explaining more about her profession, which is still very niche, Sabbarini proves that her job is to tell new, more complete and fair stories that will drive “change in strategic planning”, especially at the macro level of the organization .
“My job is to change the company’s existing practices and policies to promote the integration of gender equality practices within the entity. I’m like a facilitator of the learning journey of an organization that wants to walk through their gender journey. We support companies identifying their strengths and challenges and help them think through recommendations to improve the status quo. So, we’re not auditors. We don’t have a checklist, and we don’t have any impact. We’re there to start a conversation that facilitates discussion and thinking about who the company wants to be. , and how they can get there, based on what they already have,” said the woman who holds a master’s degree in economics and started her education career.
Sabbarini sheds light on how these recommendations on gender mainstreaming ultimately require real action plans for different businesses, “During our communications journey, we started looking at what companies already had. We tried to articulate their positives, regardless of Is it a strategy or a policy, or an existing practice. From there we try to drive and encourage the conversation to go where it should be. We don’t dictate what it should be or how workplaces should look for dialogue to inspire more Gender inclusion? What do you think the hiring process needs to be? We look at each department. We start with vision and mission. We look at employee competencies and organizational culture. We look at HR, we look at finance. We look at collaboration Partnership. So, it’s a whole program and it’s client-oriented. How do they do it? Do they take gender into account in the services they provide to clients? Or is it a tailor-made Services, not tailor-made, one service for all?”
Female labor force participation needs to be improved
Sabbarini noted that women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have high levels of education, but female participation in the labor market is the lowest in the world, “labor market regulations in Arab countries do not always promote a gender-inclusive work environment. They do not allow women to enter The labor market. These regulations are gender-insensitive. They don’t study women’s unique needs and take them into account.”
She added: “But there are also good milestones. Maternity leave, for example, is a good milestone.”
Passionate about the stereotypes of women’s roles in society and expressing her concerns about women facing low-income opportunities, she further said,
“Not everyone gets equal pay for equal work, which means when a family has to sacrifice one of two incomes, for example, when a child is born, it’s usually a woman’s income. That’s because it’s much lower than a man’s. There is a huge gender gap in the labor market.”
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But having said that, she noted that even within the region, there are significant differences in the level of female participation.
“The UAE really celebrates the achievements of women. As a result, it ranks first among other Arab countries in the Gender Equality Index and ranks 18th globally. It is worth mentioning that the index covers educational attainment, it covers political and Health. Also, the UAE has far more women in leadership roles and on boards than many other countries in the world. It is also one of the leaders of the GCC countries. Now it’s about continuing this journey and in Build on this foundation.”
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