Ref: 10/2017 

On Sunday, morning, 19 March 2017, in cooperation with Amal Coalition to Combat Violence Against Women, the Women’s Unit at the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) organized an awareness meeting titled as, ” Gender Justice and Equality in Employment” as part of the 8^th March activities organized by PCHR and Amal Coalition.  The meeting was held in PCHR’s head office in Gaza City and attended by 19 female workers from women’s organizations in the Gaza Strip.

Lawyer Hanan Matter, Director of PCHR’s Women’s Unit, welcomed the audience and then explained the unit’s activities and programs dedicated to women. Moreover, she talked about Amal Coalition, saying it is a democratic coalition to combat Gender-Based Violence (GBV) against women.  She added the Coalition comprised of several women’s, human rights and community organizations was established in the Gaza Strip, and PCHR’s Women’s Unit is partner in this Coalition.

Majeda Shehahda, Researcher at the Women’s Unit, stressed the importance of legal awareness of labor law for women workers, including the rights and privileges granted to working women that are not familiar with most of the time.  Shehadah also tackled the society challenges hindering achievement of Gender justice for women in the work environment.

Ayah al-Wakeel, a lawyer at the Women’s Unit, had an intervention on the concept of gender justice in work environment.  She explained distribution of roles between men and women in terms of partnership and giving the opportunity to both of them in order to find their capabilities and gain skills to employ these capabilities in taking new roles for gender mainstreaming in employment.  Moreover, this would develop the man-women relationship to achieve the principle of complementarity, justice, equality and fairness in equal opportunities for both men and women and to achieve as well the principle of social justice.

Al-Wakeel also addressed the Palestinian women status in the labor market and international standards and national laws of gender equality.  She also highlighted the positive effects of women’s work at the economic, social and psychological levels through promoting her social status and sense of self.

The workshop concluded to the following recommendations:

1. Activating larger and wider the role of civil society and women’s organizations to promote “gender” awareness in order to contribute to changing the traditional idea that working women are inferior;
2. Raising the awareness of society, particularly men, on the modern concepts of social roles and gender justice in employment;
3. Raising working women’s legal awareness; and
4. Working on fairly dividing jobs and creating job opportunities suitable for women.