‘If you have a degree, please don’t make jewellery in your kitchen’

“Imagine what the results and the effect on GDP would be if all the educated women who are not working were put into the workforce. I say it would be extraordinary,” she said in a talk with a small group of reporters organised by the US consulate general on Thursday.

“In a country that cannot afford to educate its youth, women choosing not to work despite having professional degrees is a serious setback. What makes me sadder is seeing women with professional degrees making jewellery in their kitchens,” she said.

Peck, who has previously served as a political officer on the Pakistan Desk of the US State Department and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee focusing on Pakistan and Afghanistan, is visiting Pakistan to meet potential Council partners and gather ideas.

The US-Pakistan Women’s Council was set up in September 2012 by the then secretary of state Hillary Clinton to “create a prosperous future for Pakistan by supporting its women”. It focuses on creating an enabling environment for women to get jobs and set up businesses.

Peck met with local businessmen at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday at the first of four symposia planned in various cities to discuss ways to create jobs for women and to start a dialogue with key stakeholders in the economy.

She said that though all the companies at the symposium were “doing great in their fields and had compelling stories to tell”, they did not communicate on issues such as hiring and retaining women employees. They could help each other develop good policy in this area, she added.

Peck visited a pharmaceutical plant in Lahore with a large number of women workers who were provided accommodation and separate dining areas. This was an example for other companies to follow, she said.

She praised companies that provided its female employees with pick-and-drop facilities, day-care centres and flexible timings as a strategy to stop the “female brain-drain”. She said she believed that female employees were more loyal than their male counterparts. “They won’t leave for a 10 per cent increase. And if provided these facilities, they will stick with you for a long, long time,” she added.

Peck said the participants at the symposium at the LCCI were very keen to join four committees set up by the Council – on sexual harassment, accommodation at the workplace, entrepreneurship and education. The final member list for the committees is to be prepared by April 1, after Peck returns to the US and submits a report on her visit to Pakistan.

She said she hoped that the members would continue to show the same zeal for the issue once tasks are distributed. “They are leaders. They get things done. They care and we need them,” she said.

For companies that targeted both men and women customers, she said, there had to be women at the policy and decision-making levels. She also stressed the need for registering women workers in the informal, home-based industry to evaluate their contribution to the economy.

Peck said she had met with stakeholders and government representatives to suggest legislation abolishing the requirement that woman seeking bank loans present property as collateral. Banks should consider the applicant’s past business performance instead. “Women in Pakistan do not usually own property and if they do, in most cases they cannot use them for such causes without the permission of their male family members.”

She also made suggestions for reporters, including that they write more about women at top positions in companies and highlight companies that provide the best environment to their female employees and have gender sensitive policies.

“We get to hear that conditions for women in Pakistan are changing for the better. If Pakistan’s rank in the World Economic Forum’s annual Gender Gap Report is declining every year, something is wrong somewhere. That is what needs to be sorted out,” she said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2013.