ZAFIYA SHAMIM
Road infrastructure can close gender gaps and the Fiji Roads Authority (FRA) is working towards supporting Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality.
The FRA’s priority issues are firstly the lack of women employed in road construction.
Secondly, the lack of gender-specific objectives into the project design and lastly the social norms
Of women’s involvement in road construction; networking and decision making.
There is no barrier or limit to the roles that women can hold, however, gender imbalance continues to impact civil engineering. This is evident with less than 10 percent of women employed in technical roles at the FRA.
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields have traditionally been male-dominated with little to no women.
However, things are changing and each year, more women are graduating in STEM fields as there are equal opportunities aplenty for both men and women.
Our major challenges are addressing social exclusion, whether it arises from gender, education, location, occupation, or a combination of factors. Another challenge is the lack of women participating and being involved in decision making.
Lastly, gender inequality due to lack of education and human resource.
The countermeasures for deepening gender mainstreaming which are now being implemented by the FRA is to develop gender-specific strategies to maximise the benefits for underprivileged women and address the impacts on their lives and livelihoods.
We are now taking action to empower and involve women through consultation, participation and decision-making to identify and plan gender specific designs which are responsive to both men’s and women’s different areas of needs, priorities, and patterns of usage of the infrastructure.
FRA has noticed that due to social norms, most women do not participate during public engagements. As such, the FRA facilitates female only focus group discussions to overcome inequalities and so that they are no longer under represented and are given an opportunity to speak about their views and concerns.
Gender plays an important role in road construction, however, in the past this has been largely negected.
Such as women continue to bear heavier burdens, especially in the rural communities.
These burdens include the negative socio-cultural norms and values that impose restrictions on women’s mobility.
During the planning process, we need to consider a number of factors; do we have adequate streetlights, have we catered for universal access, is the bus shelter at the right location, do we have railings for children’s safety, is there enough road signs, road humps among others.
Inequality between men and women is deeply embedded in nearly all global cultures and when these factors are not included into the project design, women bear disproportionate burdens and their safety and personal security, access to health care services, education, mobility, employment is compromised.
As such, in Fiji, men tend to travel more outside of the village and more often for economic purposes.
Women’s participation in the planning of FRA projects is not only significant from the point of view of their empowerment, but it is the key to good planning.
Most women, especially those living in the rural areas bear a disproportionate burden of household social and economic activities.
This is compounded when women must spend a lot of time walking long distances either to work or to collect food or firewood, leaving them with very little time to engage in viable economic activities.
In some villages, women transport goods on their backs, as they have no access to other modes of transport. They have to walk very long distances even when horses or non-motorised transport such as bicycles are available because it may not be culturally acceptable for women to do so.
As a result, women make shorter but more frequent dispersed trips than men. The frequency and distance of trips often leaves them overburden with care work too. Also, in most cases, access to means of transport is predominantly controlled by men. Some women in urban areas also experience restricted access to services either due to it being too inconveniently located or due to fear for their safety.
The FRA can help alleviate women’s transport burden by engaging them and hearing their voices. This will improve their access to health services, improve girls’ education, increase aspirations, improve their self-esteem and improved access to justice, such as getting assistance when they face violence as well as have access to commodity and produce markets which will reduce the financial burden among others.
It is the aim of FRA that improving infrastructure and access will improve the amount of quality time available to women.
FRA want the infrastructure sector to achieve progression towards accomplishing gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The FRA is planning to implement policies that are gender inclusive.
We want to engage and employ more women in road projects. We will also be formulating a gender action plan in which we can empower and involve women and achieve higher inclusion of women in gender mainstreaming processes.
(Ms Zafiya Shamim- Communications and
Gender Coordinator, Fiji Roads Authority)