Economic recession: Odds against women

A woman selling bean cakes in order to
survive the economic crunchThe deepening economic recession has not stopped to have its effect on the nation. Exceptionally, it has tightened its crippling hold on women especially within the labour market. Yet, these women have not relented in creating various avenues in order to meet up with the current challenges as they continuously strive to sustain their existence and that of their families. Kehinde Oyetimi and Ruth Olurounbi write.

Shade’s thirst, hunger and desire for higher education had been encouraged by her parents early enough in life. After a rigorous academic engagement from pre-primary to the university, she had assumed that a degree from a reputable tertiary institution coupled with a good class of degree would easily fetch her a mouth-watering employment offer. However, Shade’s hope was dashed as she was confronted with a gender-sensitive labour market.

Shade’s plight may seem rather pathetic but it is only a microcosmic representation of the overall current predicament of women. The present economic recession in the country has not stopped to have its toll on the average individual. While some are almost immuned to this reality, some have continued to be handicapped by its stinging, venomous fangs. Some analysts have argued that the recent economic crunch in the country is not new, as it has been dated to have started in the early seventies.

However, what makes it rather unbearable is the different layers of manifestation. Africa, by extension, and Nigeria in particular, has an essentially partriachal order. This male hegemonic setting has been negated by such movements such as motherism and womanism which are different shades of feminism. These movements which carry gynoconscious temper seek and advocate for the creation of space and equal gender non-sensitive play grounds for the two sexes. The women liberation movements which have divergent historical trajectories in different countries of the world have a singular convergent aim which is the distortion of the male hegemonic order and the centering of women. The disparity between the two sexes is as primordial as human existence.

Recently, the economic recession in the country has taken different shades of reality especially as it has not stopped to have a gripping hold on women.

The labour market has continued to come out with stiffer employment requirements, making it almost impossible for women to be relevant in the socio-economic trajectory of their time. The daunting courage exhibited by women can be seen in their attempt being at par with these challenges as they have not stopped at mapping out innovative strategies to meet up with the spiralling economic oppositions. The situation however remains pitiable and touching.

While taking a closer look at the impact of the global economic recession on women, the United Nations hosted a conference on the status of women. Addressing the conference, U.N Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs Sha Zukang said, “historically, economic recessions have placed a disproportionate burden on women.” He stated that women are more likely to be in vulnerable jobs, to be underemployed or without a job, lack social protection, and to have limited access to and control over economic and financial resources.

The information data sheet handed out at a United Nation’s conference on women and the global financial crisis, revealed that women’s jobs (worldwide) tend to pay lower wages, in part because women tend to have a higher rate of part-time employment, and are often not covered by social safety nets. Moreover, in countries without social safety nets, the impact on women is even more severe. The data sheet further added that employment losses or a slowdown in job growth is expected to contribute to growing unemployment. This finds women at the risk of being hired last and dismissed first.

Most single mothers do not have enough savings or own wealth and other assets to weather the crisis. They remain vulnerable as their cases are rather more pitiable.

Although most women who spoke with Sunday Tribune made their minds bare on their present predicament, they however, chose to speak under strict anonymity.

A female bank worker, who resides in Lagos gave a pitiable testament. According to her, she had no other choice than to comply as the conditions for employment were becoming stiffer by the day. “Number one on the list of my health test was that of pregnancy, followed by HIV test. You would think HIV would come first. When it was certified that I was not pregnant, I was told that I would be tested every month and if it was discovered that I was pregnant, I could be sure that my job was over. Apart from that, the following two years or so, I was not expectedto have a boyfriend because having one would distract me from my job. My confirmation would come after I had complied with the rules.

“Do you know what scared me most? It was the first hand experience I had with a senior colleague of mine. She was allowed to get married but was expected not to have children until three years after her marriage. She got her appointment when she was 29 years of age and expectedly if you add three years to 29, that will give you 32. I even heard that her case is better because she is exceptionally good,” she narrated.

For Kemi, who works with one of the new generation banks, ”a working woman is more at a disadvantage because of the economic recession. The disadvantage is becoming more acute. Can you imagine that many of us are sent to the marketing department? They (the management) said if you can’t work in the marketing department, you can take your leave.”

Kemi’s case got worsened when she got pregnant. “They said because I am good at my job, they will give me one month maternity leave without pay and I would come back to re-write my test. The unfortunate part of it is that I can’t leave the job. My boyfriend is self-employed and the high cost of things is affecting his job. Business has not been the same since the naira’s devaluation,” she recounted.

The deepening economic crisis has continued to dictate the pay conditions in many firms. This is captured in the following response provided by a male who works with one of the banks in Nigeria.”My bank this year came up with a policy. The policy is that 40 per cent of our salaries will be paid while the other 60 per cent will depend on how many customers you attract to the bank. My concern is that majority of us who are sourcing for customers are women. With the present economic recession, many businesses are folding up and less and less money is coming into the bank. Please, who does the management want these women to meet in order to meet up with their targets?” he asked.

In order to broaden its scope of reportage, Sunday Tribune visited a law firm in Lagos and the experience was not in any way different. On entry, it was noticed that the proportion of women to men working in the firm was disturbing. Out of about twenty legal practitioners who were seen on their desks, only about five were women. Sunday Tribune enquired about such disparity. Biola Ajibade, who works with the firm revealed that the firm reviewed its policy and said only a woman who is ready to go all the way would be employed, no matter how impressive her certificate is. He said that legal work consists of investigation, researches, travelling and many more. “How many women will be willing to do such? Women want to have a personal life. They want to be loved, married and raise a family. Such concerns don’t get into this firm,” he said.

A careful observer will be quick to notice the proliferation of kiosks essentially by women and the reason given by them is that the biting economic recession has compelled them to go all out in order to add to the meagre salaries and allowances they get. House wives, whose husbands initially assumed that their incomes would sufficiently cater for the needs of their families, are seen to be engaged in one trade or the other.

Mrs. Dupe Ogunronbi, who until recently was a full housewife, said she had to abandon the dream of raising her children without the distractions and demands of employment by taking up a shop in one of the shopping complexes in Ibadan. She opined that her present state is a result of the recession. The plight of Mrs. Bunmi Ajobo, who is a school teacher, is similar to that of Mrs. Ogunronbi. She not only took up a kiosk where she trades in food stuff and women’s under wears in order to meet up with the economic demands of the day, but also is engaged in private teaching.

According to her, ”being a teacher is not an easy task, talk less of adding private teaching to it. I had been considering owning a shop for a while, but what actually prompted me to do it now is this recession thing. People are saying this financial crisis has not hit Nigeria but they are wrong, the naira is depreciating, making the cost of living very expensive. Agreed, my husband has a good job, but his salary has been slashed by 40 per cent. We have three children all going to school. I had to open this shop to augment the income we earn. We spend more than we earn.”

Newly-wedded couples are getting more panicky while those that are on the verge of entering the connubial contract are having a rethink. A wedding ceremony which was slated to hold in Osogbo last month was cancelled, no thanks to the on-going economic recession. According to the woman, ”when my fiance lost his job, he started reconsidering our agreement on the type of house we were going to have, the type of job I was going to take and the number of children we were going to raise.

“We had planned to have three children and also a large house. Suddenly everything went crashing when he lost his job. I used to work in a bank. Before he lost his job, he asked me to resign promising to open a convenience store for me so that I would have time to be with our children. Now that he lost his job, which was about two months ago, he said he wasn’t sure about the marriage anymore. When I suggested to go back to my job, he refused, stressing that he wouldn’t depend on me to provide for the family. So he suggested we call off the wedding until things get better for him financially.”

While relating his experience, a Human Resource Manager in one of the media houses in the country claimed that there is an unprecedented upsurge in the number of female applicants. “What we are talking about is a deliberate policy in the banks where many women are employed for a definite purpose, which is marketing. The rationale behind this is that married women may not discharge their roles as expected as against the unmarried ones who can dress in a way to attract more customers.

“For instance, female applicants are more than their male counterparts. There were 70 applicants to a vacant post in our company, 50 out of them were females. This is a peculiar occurrence in our own part of the world. We have more female applicants now than males.”

A medical doctor who spoke under anonymity stressed that since the economic recession has deepened, the demand for abortion has increased. According to him, “the number of women who come for abortion has gone up. Surprisingly, most of these women come around with their husbands.” He narrated the case of a woman who came for an abortion but whose request he turned down while demanding for her husband’s consent.

“Surprisingly, the following day, she came with her husband. The husband said they had wanted a baby but he was among those laid off at his workplace because of the global financial meltdown and the wife had stopped working earlier to take care of the children. They had planned to use the savings they got to set up a petty business and if they had the child, the responsibility would be overwhelming,” he said.

He added that it becomes absurd when married women come for abortion as it is a common site to see single ladies, especially students and those in the banking profession seeking for abortion. But since the meltdown, even highly-placed married women come for abortion. He cited the case of a young lady who came for it in order to retain her job. According to him, ”the lady said that the company that wanted to give her the job instructed that she either gets rid of the pregnancy or walk away. She said the money was too good and that she had been searching for a job for over two years.”

In an interview, Mrs. Bosede Ojobe, Programme Coordinator and Chief Nursing Officer, Fertility Research Unit (FRU), Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University College Hospital (UCH), told Sunday Tribune that there has been a noticeable decline in the number of people that come for family planning as a result of the financial implication involved. She attributed this to the present economic crunch. She equally claimed that even the social workers on whom they turned couples with multiple baby deliveries who need help are no longer available.

According to her, “so, these couples go on television or radio houses to seek help. It has been a gradual trend before, but of recent, we have observed that the crunch is getting harder on people because when you tell them this is the money you’ll pay and it is the same amount they’ve been paying for the past three to five years, they say ah! I don’t have any money on me o. Just take the one I have.”

Mrs. Noji Imonkhuede, an analyst on gender issues, gave a painful stereotypical statistic of a students’ enrolment survey in Polytechnics in Nigeria. She argued that there is gender stereotyping in certain professions and careers. She gave the following data.

She inferred that the above table reveals the inappropriate ratio of exposure to education between both sexes. This puts women at a disadvantaged position during economic recessions as they will be forced to do menial jobs.

While arguing, Mrs. Imonkhuede stated that it took the combined resistance of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and women NGOs for a first generation bank to reverse a discriminatory policy. The policy stated that it would no longer tolerate married couples in their employment. Women NGOs were of the general opinion that the wives would be the most affected, because due to the high unemployment rates, the husbands would invariably urge their wives to resign instead.

Other sources, who spoke with Sunday Tribune revealed that most of the people affected by retrenchment are women.

Speaking on the development, a Lagos based expert on human resource development, Dr. Daniel Ajakaye, noted that what he observed in recent times was that companies sacked more women than men “because they are trying to reduce the overhead costs,.the logic behind that is to retain more men who can handle several tasks than their female colleagues.”

Even though the companies keep the lists of the retrenched workers to themselves, there are indications that most of the workers retrenched in the manufacturing companies are women. A source who preferred anonymity in one of the companies said, “even though sex has never been the basis of retrenchment, more women are relieved of their jobs than men.”

This ugly trend will definitely portend danger for our economy as most of the career women are shown the way out.

While analysing this trend, a female lawyer said “Women Liberation Movements, the Nigeria Labour Congress, and all major stakeholders including Non Government Organisations (NGOs) should ensure that the labour rights of women are respected and sustained during this bleak economic downturn as many of them have become handicapped economically.”

Additional report by Sola Oludare from Lagos