Sharing responsibilities in the home would improve the relationship between its members
Recognizing, reducing, and redistributing women's workload may be the three main lines of action to improve their lives, considered Marta Clara Ferreyra Beltrán, collaborator of UNAM's Center for Gender Research and Studies (CIEG) and General Director of National Policy on Equality and Women's Rights at INMUJERES.
The objective is that by reducing the daily stresses related to the overload of activities in women and girls, it can be recognized that they have always done this work. In this way, reassigning care in the home will produce a different relationship with the people cared for, with the members of the household and there will be a greater awareness in adult men and children, and they will also be responsible.
We believe that this policy will also bring about peace in homes and communities," said Ferreyra Beltrán. Studies conducted by the National Institute of Women (INMUJERES) revealed that a significant number of mothers take their children to work, or grandmothers take care of grandchildren in support of their daughters.
This instance asked the opinion of five thousand women from all over the country and they agreed on three common problems that urgently need to be addressed: to put an end to the gender violence that constantly affects them and the violence that affects their territories; to have a formal job with legal benefits and a contract that allows them to know how much they will be paid, their working hours, if they will have paid vacations, Christmas bonus, and rights associated with their activity; in addition to solving the issue of caregiving.
We think of it as a triangle or vicious circle, because one situation affects the other and they cannot get out of it, nor can they move around safely in their communities or on public transportation. Some suffer violence from the moment they get up to the moment they go to sleep: on public transportation, in the street, at work, at home. This affects their ability to work and they cannot go out because they have no one to take care of their children or dependents.
It is necessary to create a model, a care system, to think about reality with these three elements.
Besides reducing gender violence, it must consider those groups on the margins, women, girls, sick people, the elderly, LGBT groups, diverse identities, those of us who are not in the heteronormative center. And to say: we are going to build a model of care system that allows us to take care of the universal and the individual at the same time.
The specialist in issues of equality and eradication of discrimination informed that INMUJERES elaborates a federal map to identify the needs and to know what is the offer of public services; in this way, to know in detail the gap that exists between both.
