The wife of Anambra State Governor,Mrs Nonye Soludo, has called on government and the private sector to dedicate more efforts to reforming the work environment to make it safer, conducive and friendly for working women.
Mrs Soludo stated this in Awka, in a message to mark the 2023 Workers’ Day.
According to the governor’s wife, with growing concerns about the safety of work environments as they affect women, it is important to address certain workplace challenges that hinder women from living their goals.
She explained that factors like jobs and sexual stereotypes, gender dichotomies and preferences, workplace abuses, patriarchal dominance, among others, have played huge negative roles in the path of women and their occupational dreams.
Mrs Soludo further stated that making the workplace safe and friendly for women has become very urgent, pointing out that many women have had to leave their jobs because of safety threats and unhealthy work premises.
She called on government at all levels to make special legal policies that protect working women, as well as strengthen existing workplace statutes to make them more applicable and actionable.
She also advocated for stronger laws that would protect everyone in the labour force, especially those who are into low class labour, pointing that the current administration in Anambra State is already committed to making policies that make working in the state enviable, including recent increase and prompt payment of workers’ salaries, gratuities and other after-job packages, and also giving Anambra workers every platform to grow.
While praising all workers for their doggedness, commitment and productivity, Mrs Soludo said the celebration calls to mind the indispensability of the workforce to the economic and political growth of any society.
She encouraged working mothers to always strike a balance between their jobs and households as motherhood is very demanding.
Olusola Akintonde
