News Bureau

Skills have no gender!

At the occasion of International Women's Day (IWD) WorldSkills has made a call said, ‘This IWD, we are looking for your support of #skillshavenogender. You might remember Rosie the Riveter. Flexing her muscles in a boiler suit and cheery polka dot headscarf, she was created as a propaganda tool to draw women into skilled factory work during the Second World War but endured long after as a feminist icon. Her slogan was “We can do it.”

Yet decades later, RosIe the Riveter, or Paula the Plumber, or Isabella the Industrial Mechanics Millwright, or Aisha the Aircraft Maintenance Technician, are still relative novelties. WorldSkills refers WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017, ‘that is not to say there has not been great progress. At WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 we saw Marah Masupa competing for Zambia in Concrete Construction, and Caroline Söderqvist of Sweden in Aircraft Maintenance, both occupations traditionally seen as a male preserve.’

In WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017 only ten per cent of teams had at least 50 per cent women competing. For 44 teams (86% of Members taking part) it was less than a third. A quarter of the 50 skills had no women taking part at all. How many skills had male competitors? All of them. When women did compete, though, they did well. Of the 38 skills with female participation, women won medals in 16 of them.

We should hardly be surprised by this. A broader picture of the world of work shows just how poorly women, and especially young women, are faring. Studies by UNESCO, the United Nation’s Education and Science Organization, show that women hold just 17% of technology jobs.

It’s not hard to see why. In an age when vocational education and skills is a pathway to a better life, UNESCO reports that of the 750 million adults who lack even basic literacy skills, two-thirds are women, and mostly young women. HeForShe is a global campaign that was launched by UN Women to engage men and boys as advocates and stakeholders, to break the silence, raise their voices, and take action for the achievement of gender equality.

63 WorldSkills Members support HeForShe: Armenia; Australia; Austria; Barbados; Belarus; Belgium; Bangladesh; Brazil; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; China; Chinese Taipei; Colombia; Costa Rica; Denmark; Egypt; Estonia; Finland; France; Georgia; Germany; Hong Kong, China; Kazakhstan; Croatia; Hungary; Iceland; India.

Further, Indonesia; Iran; Ireland; Jamaica; Japan; Kingdom of Bahrain; Korea; Latvia; Malaysia; Mongolia; Morocco; Namibia; Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Oman; Palestine; Poland; Portugal; Principality of Liechtenstein; Romania; Russia; Singapore; South Africa; South Tyrol, Italy; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Thailand; Trinidad and Tobago; Tunisia; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom; United States of America; Vietnam; and Zambia.

De facto WorldSkills focuses gender equality too says, ‘WorldSkills has the power to help change this.’ The next WorldSkills competition is scheduled in Kazan, Russia & that will become the skills capital of the world in August when the city hosts both WorldSkills Conference 2019 and 45th WorldSkills Competition.

What's your reaction? 0% 0% 0%