Gender Mainstreaming in the Maldivian Job Market

Maldivian society has never neglected the development of women as much as men in challenging careers over the last couple of decades unlike most Muslim societies like ours. This was well understood by the society after establishing an all girl school, Aminiya School in the year 1944. However, social responsibilities of women in the society have led to expected slow development of Women than men in this community.

Some employers hesitate to appoint women into their jobs, however, this is not written in any Code of Ethics or Policies. This is justified in the interview when they ask you, if you can contribute a 100% of self for the job. Usually for men, the answer would be yes. However, women, would often say, I have a kid or due to the living situation, I can only contribute 3 or less hours other than official hours. Parenting a kid, being a great Asian wife for the husband and taking care of the elder parent are responsibilities on the hands of the woman.

As I mentioned cultural and social influence before, the pattern appears to be that more of female staffs work in administrative areas rather than technical areas. This might be mainly due to the fact that technical areas of work are often manual and much field based. Technical work also requires more time, complications in balancing work and personal life.

Not to mention, but also the negative image given out through out the public, if she goes too public. The moment you are a great contributor to work, you become the worst wife ever. The moment you are active in the public, you become the worst parent ever. The moment you socialize a little bit more, you become the worst daughter ever. In fact, most Maldivian women do a great job by balancing both off yet they respect the cultural and social expectations.

Our national regulation states “It is prohibited to discriminate amongst persons carrying out equal work based on race, colour, social standing, religion, political beliefs or affiliation with any political party, sex, marital status, family obligations, and in so far as it does not contravene the provisions herein age or disability”.

In fact, our laws, regulations and rules give all the necessary rights to women to balance off her social and personal responsibility and employment responsibility. With all this protections and restrictions, we can conclude that it is strictly the social beliefs and cultural understanding that limits the gender mainstreaming in the Maldives.