Women in Construction Sector
Constraints and Opportunities
by
The status of women in Nepal has varied throughout history. In the early 1990s, like in some other Asian countries, women in Nepal were generally subordinate to men in virtually every aspect of life. Nepal has predominantly been a male-controlled society where women are generally subordinate to men. Men were considered to be the leader of the family and superior than women. Also, social norms and values were biased in favor of men. While the 1990 Constitution guaranteed fundamental rights to all citizens without discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, caste, religion, or sex, modernizing society along with reach of education to the general population itself has played an important role to promote gender equality. The roles of women have changed in various ways in the modern Nepalese society. Nepal is not only rapidly progressing towards economic development, it is also achieving targets for poverty and hunger, universal primary education, child mortality, maternal health and gender equality and women’s empowerment. Women are now taking leadership roles and participating in decision making at all levels. There has been increased government involvement to increase accountability and monitoring of gender equality commitments and to establish and strengthen linkages between the normative and operational aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Today, Nepalese women are defying cultural traditions, and are becoming community leaders, environmentalists’ politicians and business owners. In October 2015, Nepal elected its first female president, Bidhya Devi Bhandari. Other famous Nepali women include CNN Hero of the Year winners Anuradha Koirala, Pushpa Basnet, first female to climb Mt. Everest Pasang Lamu Sherpa,international award-winning athletes Mira Rai, Phupu Lhamu Khatri,and first female chief justice Sushila Karki.
There is a huge number of economically active women in Nepal who have no access to economic resources. Three quarters of the unpaid family labor force is comprised of women. A larger proportion of women (76 per cent) than men (50 per cent) are engaged in agricultural work, household based extended economic activities and household maintenance work. A lack of formal employment or alternative livelihood opportunities restrain women’s participation in the country’s economic growth, as well as discounting their contributions to it. Gender norms mean that women continue to undertake a disproportionate level of unpaid care tasks which in turn constrains their choice, including type and location, of paid work.
Women lack access to and control over productive resources such as land, forest, money, technology and enterprises. The right to property is fragile and temporary, despite the guarantee of the fundamental ‘right to equality’ in the country’s constitution, regardless of race, caste, and sex. Legally, a daughter is not entitled to familiar property and a woman is entitled to her husband’s property not as an independent co-partner, but because she is his wife. The denial of property rights by the state represents a stark double standard.
Although the population of working-age females in the country is higher than that of males, females still lag far behind when it comes to employment—and the pay gap between the genders is also huge. According to the Nepal Labor Force Survey 2017-18, for every 100 males in the working-age population, there are 125 females, but for every 100 employed males, there are only 59 employed females. The population of working-age males stands at 9.2 million while that of working-age females stands at 11.53 million.
Of the total working-age women, only 8.5 million are in the labor force who are either employed or are in search of employment, and only 2.6 million from the total women labor force are employed, according to the report. This shows only 22.5 percent of working-age women are employed. The survey has considered only those who are receiving wage or salary for doing work and making profits for being self-employed as “employed”. So, people employed in subsistence farming and household chores do not fall under the definition of the “employed”. The survey also shows that males are mostly employed in construction, manufacturing and transport industries while females are employed in the areas of agriculture, wholesale and retail trading and education industries.
Women have not been able to find an appropriate environment to work in the formal sector due to their social responsibilities at home. Lack of day care center in the workplace and women-friendly environment is yet another factor for not many women being in the formal jobs.” 66.5 percent of employed women and 59.7 percent of employed men are in the informal sector. Within the informal sector, males are mostly involved in non-agriculture informal sector while females are mostly involved in the informal agriculture sector, according to the survey. In the informal sector, there is a lack of social security and the workers are underpaid. In the sectors like hotels and dance restaurants and domestic works, women are not paid even the minimum wage.
It is felt that because of lack of education and skills, women are heavily employed in the informal sector. But there is opportunity for increasing women’s involvement in the formal sector, as the trend shows great numbers of males are working abroad. Private area enterprises should also come up with women-friendly rules and laws. Like in the government jobs, there should be provisions of quota for women workers in the private sector enterprises to increase their participation. Women are still not getting adequate exposure and training, and they are still subjected to so-called “family penalty” for not working during the time of maternity, which also leads to the wage gap
Women are heavily hired in elementary and less technical jobs while males are hired in higher positions and more technical jobs, which also lead to the wage gap between male and female. There are limited women acquiring higher education in the technical field compared to men which also makes it difficult for women to get highly paid jobs in the technical field. While women have long been present in the construction sector as part of family units, they are increasingly entering the industry as independent wage-earners, in many cases the main breadwinners of their households.
Often, women work in the worst jobs in construction—carrying bricks and sand, breaking stones and working with heavy machinery without safety gears. Most are still categorized as ‘helpers’ and a much smaller number have begun to work as masons, although even women who have been able to access mason training have encountered barriers within the industry. In Kathmandu, a number of women are marble-chip workers—some own their own machines—or have worked up to being petty contractors. But they also face discrimination and poor working conditions.
Closing the gender pay gap is crucial, but the women say that wages are only one part of the wider problem: the issues that concern them are also to do with welfare in general—decent housing, guaranteed work, childcare and whether they can send their children to school. They stressed that the minimum wage should be a living wage. . We women should not be underestimated by anybody or our capabilities just because we are a women. We should prove them wrong. We always think that we are a part of an in demand, fast paced and growing industry.
Concluding Thoughts
Inspiring more women into the construction industry needs more than government rule and strategies; it requires construction companies of all sizes to advocate and initiate adjustment. It needs staff at all levels of the professional to identify the importance and value of gender diversity; it needs firms to recognize potential and support profession development; it needs businesses to link the pay gap and offer women the same opportunities as men; and, above all else, it needs a change in attitude. Of course, providing honest opportunities for career development, making more work placement positions available, championing sustainability, highlighting staff achievements, improving working conditions, increasing staff retention rates and promoting a modern image of the industry won’t just benefit women; it will benefit men, too.