Spring Break
Director of Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University gives lecture on global gender, work disparities
Betsy Cohen
Issue date: 4/17/09 Section: News
04/17/09 - Last night students and professors crammed into the University of Rhode Island's Swan Hall Auditorium to hear guest speaker, Dr. Jody Heymann, PhD.
Heymann received her Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School and has advised both the U.S. Senate the World Health Organization
As the founding director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University, she gave a presentation titled 'Meeting the Needs of Working Families: Getting to the Core of Global Gender Inequalities.' The Women's Studies Program hosted the Eleanor M. Carlson lecture, also part of the 2009 Spring Honors Colloquium.
Heymann discussed issues within the global workforce, with a focus on gender disparities and the decreasing quality of childcare and working conditions. She also presented data gathered from various studies she has collected during her 100,00 miles of yearly travel.
More than 170 countries 55,000 households from areas such as Russia, Botswana, Mexico and Brazil were included in the study.
According to Heymann, 58 percent of parents in Mexico live on a salary of less than $10 a day and face a loss of income due to caring for their children. Some children are left home alone while their parents work long hours in attempts to earn enough money to survive.
Heymann found that more than 930 million children under 15-years-old are being brought up in families where the adults leave them to work.
"It is estimated that 340 million of the world's children under six live in households in which all adults work for pay," Heymann said.
Giving the example of Gabriella, a 19-year-old girl living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Heymann explained the dire living situation - especially for women, on a worldwide scale.
During the time Heymann spent with Gabriella, she learned she was forced to work 15 to 22 hours a day, seven days of the week. Her total earnings by the end of the week were a mere $6, not nearly enough to support her toddler.
Heymann received her Medical Degree from Harvard Medical School and has advised both the U.S. Senate the World Health Organization
As the founding director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy at McGill University, she gave a presentation titled 'Meeting the Needs of Working Families: Getting to the Core of Global Gender Inequalities.' The Women's Studies Program hosted the Eleanor M. Carlson lecture, also part of the 2009 Spring Honors Colloquium.
Heymann discussed issues within the global workforce, with a focus on gender disparities and the decreasing quality of childcare and working conditions. She also presented data gathered from various studies she has collected during her 100,00 miles of yearly travel.
More than 170 countries 55,000 households from areas such as Russia, Botswana, Mexico and Brazil were included in the study.
According to Heymann, 58 percent of parents in Mexico live on a salary of less than $10 a day and face a loss of income due to caring for their children. Some children are left home alone while their parents work long hours in attempts to earn enough money to survive.
Heymann found that more than 930 million children under 15-years-old are being brought up in families where the adults leave them to work.
"It is estimated that 340 million of the world's children under six live in households in which all adults work for pay," Heymann said.
Giving the example of Gabriella, a 19-year-old girl living in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Heymann explained the dire living situation - especially for women, on a worldwide scale.
During the time Heymann spent with Gabriella, she learned she was forced to work 15 to 22 hours a day, seven days of the week. Her total earnings by the end of the week were a mere $6, not nearly enough to support her toddler.
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