Transcript Presentation Rhoda Reddock

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
Introduction – The Current Context of Social
Life in the Caribbean
 Economic Neo-Liberalism, Gender and Social Life
in the Caribbean
 Gangs, Guns and Criminal Violence – Implications
for the Care Work
Women and the Care Economy: Reconciling
Work with Family
 Conclusions and Recommendations

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
In 2003, Caribbean Sociologist and Gender
Studies Scholar Linden Lewis noted the
following:
“The Caribbean is at a critical juncture of its
history and development. The economic and
social challenges facing the region are
daunting to say the least. The region faces a
future without any guarantees.
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
Today the Caribbean is facing a serious economic
crisis, the culmination of the impact of neo-liberal
economic policies over the last two decades as
well as the impact of the current economic crisis
in the Global North.

It has come after a close to 20-year period where
the forces of free trade and the free market
described by some as - “The Washington
Consensus,” were paramount.
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
These policies facilitated the dismantling and removal
of the many of the social and economic systems
established in the Anglophone Caribbean in the
aftermath of the labour disturbances of the 1930s and
World War II (although not to the same extent in all
countries). In other words a weakening of the social
sector.

They also opened up local and regional markets by
insisting on the removal of subsidies on local
agriculture.
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
With the decline in agriculture and manufacturing
local economic opportunities for the majority of poor
women and men have also significantly declined
resulting in increased poverty and regional or
international migration.

Yet women, especially middle-class women made
good use of educational opportunities resulting in
women having higher educational levels than men at
a time of increasing male school dropouts and male
youth criminality which is a major concern in the
region.
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The visibly improved performance of young
women in the education system where females
comprise 60-70% of the university population
has raised questions about continued state
support for women’s programmes
 Today there is increased concern from the
State in high levels of youth criminality
including criminal violence, school violence
and poor educational performance.
.

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
The gains for women are often juxtaposed
against the ‘losses’ for men

It can be argued that this is the negative result
of the lack of support for parents and caring
work.

Today child care and elderly care continue to
the primarily the responsibility of women with
limited support.
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Guns, Gangs and Youth
Violence
 The issue of youth criminality brings together
many of the social, economic and gender questions
currently facing our region:
› The Caribbean’s location within the regional and
global economy;
› The differential gendered impact of socio-economic
policy; and
› The collapse of the social sector in many although
thankfully not all of our countries over the years of
economic neo-liberalism;
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Guns, Gangs and Youth
Violence Cont’d
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The increased burden of care placed on families, and
on mothers in particular with little state or partner
support;
The normalisation of the gun as the weapon of choice
through the globalisation of the US entertainment
industry;
The emergence of the drug economy as a replacement
of the now disappearing productive industries;
The gendered constructions of masculinities and the
significance of violence within it;
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Guns, Gangs and Youth
Violence Cont’d
 The sexual division of labour and the
responsibilities of women and men within
it;
 The need for attention to the quality of our
education systems and not only the
quantity;
 The need to support parents in the normal
yet challenging role of parenting in the
contemporary world.
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Reconciling Work
with Family
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Caribbean sociologists and demographers have stressed
the concept of the “household” as not coterminous with
the concept of “family”.

Caribbean family forms defied traditional western
norms of family and were often considered deviant.
Social welfare systems are based on the traditional
conjugal family and the notion of the male breadwinner
despite the significant deviation from this norm.

The idea of family in the Caribbean goes far beyond the
household to include all known relatives, close friends
of ones’ parents and their children.
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Trinidad and Tobago was the first country in
the region to pass legislation on Measuring
unwaged work.
 The Counting Remunerated Work Bill was
introduced in February 1995 and passed in
1996.
 It was piloted in the Parliament as a Private
Members Bill by a woman independent
senator – Diana Mahabir-Wyatt

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
It requires the CSO and other public bodies:
“to produce and maintain statistics relative to the
counting of unremunerated work and to provide a
mechanism for quantifying and recording the
monetary value of such work

It examines – agricultural work, care-giving of the
sick, the disabled, the elderly, and very young; work
carried out in and around households, unpaid “social
safety net “ work carried out by both women and men
in NGOs – in satellite accounts
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 This cause had been championed for years
by Clotil Walcott, grassroots women’s and
labour activist and founder of the National
Union of Domestic Employees (NUDE)
which in 1980 was affiliated to the
International Wages for Housework
Campaign
 Her daughter Ida Le Blanc would continue
her work on Domestic workers rights.
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Females 15+ performed 1,204,461 hours work in the
week preceding the census
 Males 15+ performed 612,878 hours
 Most time – was spent in Cleaning the house 21% Males and 24% females, followed by Washing Laundry
 A sexual division of labour existed. Men did most of the
Gardening and rearing of animals and Home Repairs
and Maintenance
 Males also participated more in sports and leisure
activities ( not included in the total above)
 Females more in community and volunteer work
NITRA)

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
This Study found that:
› Much of women’s work does not appear in
national statistics
› Unpaid unrecognised activities were more
numerous in low-income households
› Non-monetary contributions unvalued
economically and in relation to human value
› Inability to measure this contribution prevents
an accurate assessment of output
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
This Study was carried out by a Women’s
organisation affiliated to the International
Women Count Network, dissatisfied with the
slow pace of government action found that:
“the typical working day for women ranged from
14-18 hours, with little help from anyone, often
with minimal and unreliable technology, limited
access to amenities and with very little leisure or
free time for themselves”
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In June 2011 the ILO Convention on Decent Work
for Domestic Workers was approved in Geneva
 This was the culmination of many years of
struggle by domestic worker organisations.
 Central to this struggle was Ida Le Blanc
daughter of the late Clotil Walcott who had
fought for the recognition of unwaged work in
Trinidad and Tobago

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
The rest of this presentation draws heavily on
the study –
Reconciling Work and Family: Issues and
Policies in Trinidad and Tobago, by Rhoda
Reddock and Yvonne Bobb-Smith, ILO
Conditions of Work and Employment Series,
No. 18, 2008.
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
Over the past few decades, the increasing
industrialisation and diversification of the
economy and the impact of the women’s
movement have resulted in complex changes
in society and economy.

Families and households have had to respond
to the quick pace of technological change,
workplace demands, migration of family
members, increasing income inequalities,
inflation and the resulting social dislocation,
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Today much of the blame for the increase in
youth criminality and violence is placed on
parents.
 There has even been a call for parents to be
held legally responsible for the behaviour of
their children.
 Women’s involvement in work outside the
home is also blamed for this situation.

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
Women as household heads
“households below the poverty line tend to be larger
and headed by females who are often single mothers
with dependent children, or contain at least one elderly
person living alone or in an extended family setting
sometimes having responsibility for the entire
household”.

Elderly in Households
22% of all households had at least one older person (65
years and older). Of these, 42% were extended family
households while 21% comprised persons living alone.
 Parents utilize the services of paid help for
preschoolers, such as daily or live-in domestic
help.
 They place children in the care of neighbours
or relatives.
 They give responsibilities to older siblings;
 They use private or public child-care services.
 They hire help for after school care.
 They choose jobs, which have flexible hours to
manipulate their work time around hours for
childcare.
 They establish their own businesses.

Although families are small, they still depend on
extended family support e.g. grandmothers, other
relatives and friends;

Where these are not available or in a crisis babysitters, child care centres etc. are used.

In many instances grandparents esp. grandmothers
become principal caregivers when parents migrate or
are no longer available to their children – usually due
to drug addiction, alcoholism, mental health
problems, homicides, imprisonment or chronic ill
health e.g. HIV and AIDS.

Single fathers were a minority and more likely
than married fathers to be living in an extended
or complex household and therefore to have more
adult support available. She observed:
› A multi-family single parent male headed household
means that children have potentially more access to
adults than children living with just their fathers.
The problems of solo parenting differs for men and
women in the Trinidad and Tobago context. Solo
fathers receive more volunteer help from friends and
kin, probably because men are assumed to be less
capable of childrearing than women
(Bronte Tinkew,1998:31).
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
Women continue to have major responsibilities
for housework and child care;

Some men have become more sensitized and
share responsibilities mainly in transporting
children to and from school, supervising
homework and grooming children;

Women reported difficulties in assigning
housework to family members including children.

Difficulty in continuing breastfeeding after
returning to work
“I returned to work when my son was 3½ months old. I visit his
daycare every working day to breastfeed him and to express milk.
How do I do it? My day goes like this: I breastfeed him at about 7:00
am before we leave home. I drop my (two) older children to school
and then leave my baby in St James. I begin my lunch hour at 11:00
am and drive for 20 minutes from downtown, Port of Spain (capital)
to St James (suburbs). When I arrive there, he is usually hungry and
looking out for me, so I breastfeed him immediately… I eat the lunch I
have brought with me and drive back to work, getting there by 12:30
pm” (Helen Ross, t.i.b.s NEWS April//June 2004: 1-2).

There is no synchronization of work hours and
school hours. Schools can end at any one of these
times - 12.15, 1.30, 2.00, 2.30, 3.00 or 5.15 p.m.
(with extra lessons).

Women, increasingly a part of the labour force,
have used innovative coping strategies to reduce
the conflict that work-family responsibilities
produce and to manage their time;

Men to a lesser extent are visible in this respect
but usually in specific areas e.g. providing
transportation.
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
Mr. J, Taxi-driver, does not live with his 3
children, he however shuttles them to school
and back home. One child attends school in Port
of Spain and two others in Maraval. Outcome:
security for children, but severe loss of earnings
during peak hours.

The unpredictability of this country’s infrastructure
especially transportation and utilities e.g. water and
electricity - heighten work-family conflict;

The citizens’ fear of criminal violence has placed
more stress on working parents who seek to ensure
their children’s safety;

Middle and upper-income women/parents use their
financial resources for babysitters, special transport
arrangements etc. low-income women are unable to
access similar support structures
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Mrs C. leaves South Trinidad for her job in Port of
Spain at 5:15 am arriving at work at 6:00 am.
Her seven year old son travels to school a few
miles away in a carpool. When his father is not at
work, he takes him to school.
She leaves work between 4:00 and 5:00 pm and
arrives home between 6:30 and 8:00 pm in the
evening.
She notes that quality time with her son on a daily
basis is reduced to merely an hour or less, as she
sees him go to bed, and perhaps reads to him.
Mrs. K has developed a network of resources... Her day
begins at 5:00. Because of the flexible time in her new
job, which she chose because it helps with her plan, she
can fully dress and groom her daughters for school,
and give them packed lunch kits before a female taxi
driver transports them to the babysitter. They remain
there approximately an hour, before the driver takes
them to school. They have the reverse trip in the
afternoon, when they remain at the babysitter’s until
she is on her way home from work, between 16:00 to
18:00, depending on the structure of her day
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Lack of synchronization of work and school
hours
 Day Care centres 3 mths – 3 years
 Breast feeding support in workplaces
 School transportation
 Gender-sensitive parenting programmes
 Child support and fatherhood

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Illness/HIV/AIDS
 Sexual Division of Labour
 Migration

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Full-time work
 Part-time work
 Work hours and school hours
 Flexible schedules

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Widows and Orphans fund
 NIS
 Employee assistance programmes
 Homework centres and after school Care
 Vacation Camps
 Disability Assistance Grants
 School Nutrition programmes
 Early Childhood Education Centre - State
 School transportation

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
Need for Improved data collection and
analysis. The Central Statistical Office and
various other sources of Institutional Data
need to be strengthened to improve the
quality and timeliness of data for planning
and analysis.

Greater use of gender indicators and
gender disaggregated data.
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
Strengthen Labour Ministries to improve monitoring
systems of work conditions in low income
occupations

Rationalize school opening and closing hours

Increase the centralization of essential services

Consider tax incentives to businesses that implement
practices to reduce work-family conflict

Pass legislation to mandate child care centres in all
housing estates, office complexes and industrial
estates.

Flexi-time arrangements to be made standard

Co- funded solutions e.g. Homework centres, crèches,
in all new office complexes, housing schemes and
industrial estates;

DOCUMENT/PUBLICIZE BEST PRACTICES
› The AFETT survey of female friendly workplaces
and Selection of the Top5 a good example

Develop a workplace culture to encourage
contributions to work-family compatibility policies
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Selected Recommendations
Trade Unions
o
Introduce measures into collective bargaining
aimed to address work-family conflict
o
Facilitate gender sensitivity training for all trade
union personnel- male and female including
shared domestic responsibility
o
Develop a public education campaign to introduce
this issue and its impact, from parenting to
worker commitment

Implementing these policies in the short run
may be costly but much less so than the other
impacts –
› Criminality and violence;
› High rates of worker absenteeism;
› Low productivity;
› Poorly adjusted and unhealthy citizens