A woman is a pillar of society and model of unity, security and influence. She treats her children equally by sharing her love and knowledge with the family.  A woman plays a great role at home as well as at work. She is a great contributor to education by teaching children practical as well as theoretical skills.

Although women play a great role in forming a good and healthy society, in most parts of the world including Eritrea, they are discriminated against. In cases where a woman and a man have completed the same level of education and are employed around the same time, men rise to higher positions faster than women. Most employers feel that men are more clever, hardworking and productive than women. Some employers regard women employees unreliable and inefficient consequently relegating them to lower positions in the society devoid of adequate education and skill. 

Eritrean women are uniting and forging alliances to change the anti-women attitude in the society. The National Union for Eritrean Women (NUEW), a women association in Eritrea, played an important role in drafting the Constitution of Eritrea by organizing workshops and sensitizing women on the crucial issues that concern women. Administered from Asmara and regional offices located in all six zones, NUEW’s membership numbers over 200,000 women. NUEW continues to play a key role in monitoring and evaluating the formulation/planning and implementation of government policies and programs from a gender perspective.

NUEW is striving hard to ensure that:

• Women develop confidence in themselves, respect one another, and  raise their voice in political and legal systems
• Laws protect women’s rights in the family (entitlement rights and other civil laws)
• Women have equal access to education, pay, promotion and employment opportunities
• Women have access to health care, paid maternity leave and child care services
• Harmful traditional practices that endanger women are eradicated
• Eritrean women and their families exit poverty

Eritrean women are undertaking agricultural activities in different areas of the Midrizien village of Central region (Maakel) following training and loans extended to them by NUEW. Four women farmers received a month long agricultural training in Italy aimed at reinforcing agricultural output. There is improvement in standards of living of women farmers through their concerted efforts in their farm plots.

It is reported that 45 percent of the measurable Gross Domestic Income comes from the work of women in the world’s richest countries. The Global Report of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on equality at work, which draws attention to discrimination at the workplace taking on new, subtler forms, is a timely reminder to governments and institutions that the battle against inequality needs to be fought through a combination of awareness campaigns, policy measures and legal efforts. Progress in tackling even the long-recognized discrimination against women is described in the report as inconsistent, thus underlining the difficulty involved in removing deeply-ingrained prejudices that show up in the workplace.

Whether they have institutional sanction or not, societal biases and stereotypes contribute to the discrimination of vulnerable groups, ethnic and cultural minorities. The report notes that there has been an increase in religious discrimination over the past decade with the international political climate of counter-terrorism fuelling sentiments of mutual fear among Muslims and non-Muslims. There has also been a rise in discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS. Obviously, governments and institutions must show greater concern while looking into complaints of such forms of discrimination. Since women continue to constitute the largest group that faces discrimination at the workplace, the seriousness of a government in ending all discrimination would be measured first and foremost in this sphere.

In the Eritrean context, the fight against sexual discrimination made major gains with NUEW’s guidelines for dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace. The Union Chairwoman, Lul Ghebreab, announced the formation of a committee to ascertain the extent to which the government had been able to remove discrimination, particularly sexual harassment, at the workplace. Sadly, Eritrea lags behind other countries in ensuring a safe, non-discriminatory working environment for women. The Infosys case of India, where the company paid $3 million to a former employee who filed sexual harassment charges against a board member, is a pointer to the gap between Eritrea and the developed countries in this aspect. It is unthinkable that actually, the Infosys payment, which is part of an out-of-court settlement, is only a fraction of the amount demanded as compensation by the former employee. Not surprisingly, women groups opine that Eritrean laws favour the accused in cases of sexual harassment.

Enforcement of existing laws is another area where the government is found wanting. The government’s guidelines, which put the onus on employers in public and private sectors to set up mechanisms for dealing with complaints from aggrieved women, are yet to be implemented effectively. Such guidelines are meaningless for the unorganized sectors where women, low-skilled and ill-paid, are the most insecure.

In such a situation, stringent laws must be complemented by adequate redress mechanisms beyond the workplace. Governmental policies and support measures must be backed up with initiatives that would involve the larger community in identifying and addressing the problem areas. In the absence of concerted efforts, where the courts succeed, the government might fail. And where the governments succeed, the community might fail. As the ILO report says, any failure to tackle the widening socio-economic inequalities would adversely affect social cohesion and political stability. That, surely, is the huge cost of status quo.

Women played a pivotal role in Eritrea’s freedom struggle as almost 33 percent of Eritrean freedom fighters were women. Eritrean women have equal potentiality to contribute substantially to the achievement of freedom and economic development of Eritrea. In recognition of their immense contribution during the struggle, the Eritrean government has rightly reserved 30 percent of the seats in the local and national elections for women. There are three women cabinet ministers in the government namely:  Askalu Menkorias (Labour and Human Welfare), Fousia Hashim (Justice), and Amna Nur Hussain (Tourism) and one Administrator of the Northern Red Sea Zone, Mrs. Tsigereda Weldegergish. Women compete against each other for the votes of both men and women. Women also run against men for the remaining 70 percent of the seats. Therefore, the same privilege has to be given in the employment including top civil servant jobs to competent women.

Women are highly talented, honest, and sociable and can contribute in economic development as in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and many other countries. Eritrean women should receive equal opportunity of education and work which they have been denied by religious, traditional, cultural beliefs and attitudes.