BRUNEI-MUARA

Friday, August 6, 2010

A special committee on Women and the Family Institution is in the process of being set up to assist the ministerial level National Council on Social Issues in addressing matters concerning women in Brunei, such as gender sensitisation and gender responsive budgeting.

Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Datin Hjh Adina Othman announced this during her opening address at The Women’s Forum at The Empire Hotel & Country Club yesterday.

However, no further details of the committee were disclosed.

The deputy minister noted that there are areas that still need to be improved, even though remarkable progress has been made in terms of equal access to education and training, employment, skills and knowledge acquisition, healthcare and protection against violence for Bruneian women.

“The challenges ahead is to go beyond the basic level, that is by increasing the quality of services and nature of development for women,” she added.

She said that it is imperative for policymakers in Brunei to review existing policies and programmes by practising gender sensitisation, to modify one’s behaviour through raising awareness on gender equality.

“Through positive actions such as gender sensitisation, the gender perspective can be applied to all existing programmes and can also be a basis for the formulation of policies and programmes,” said Datin Hjh Adina.

In Brunei, the number of female university graduates outnumber the males and this is the same for enrolment figures into higher learning institutions. She said that while this is a positive sign for the female population it is becoming worrying trend in many countries.

“What is happening to our boys?” asked Datin Hjh Adina. “Our challenge will not be merely to increase the participation of women, but rather the increased participation of both men and women together, in equity and in unison.”

She said the common stereotypes which portray women as a weak dependent, housekeepers and less important have not really taken root in Brunei as women have always played prominent roles in the economy such as the padian (women selling perishable goods on boats during the old days) which have been further strenghtened by women’s acquisition of education.

Women account for 39.4 per cent of the 56.7 per cent participation rate in the labour force, based on 2008 figures. However, this comes with a price as the increase in working women has undeniably affected the traditional role of woman in the family institution.

“The balance needs to be struck between the woman’s role in the workplace and her role as caregiver. This will represent a challenge to our working women, but one that needs to be dealt with towards achieving sound work-life balance or work-home balance,” she said.

“The responsibilities of the working mother should not be at the expense of her role as mother and wife. With the increase in working women, men will also need to adjust their expectations and also learn new skills.”

One of the ongoing issues facing employers is when parents go out during office hours to pick up their children from school.

The National Council on Social Council conducted a survey among male and female government servants that showed the need for family-friendly centres to be set up in offices that “can in fact increase productivity by reducing the need for them to be absent from the workplace”.

With this facility in place, parents will be able to return to the office and continue working while being assured of the safety of their children and their development, said Datin Hjh Adina.

“Insyaallah, MCYS will propose for it,” she told The Brunei Times.

Another area of concern is the need to increase the number of women in leadership and decision-making positions in the public and private workforce, in which women in Brunei are still under-represented, according to Brunei Darussalam’s National Development Plan 2007-2012.

“The challenge is to give equal opportunity to women,” she said as “increasing the participation of women in leadership and decision making level is critical to ensure that women’s issues are placed on the national agenda”.

In recognition of the capabilities of women, it would be a great loss to the nation if these capabilities were left untapped, the deputy minister said.

She also mentioned other challenges such as women’s career progression being a contributing factor to the decline of the fertility rate and increase in divorce rates in Brunei, but made no elaboration.

The Brunei Times

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