Practitioner Review

Journal of Industrial Relations

2014, Vol. 56(4) 566–576
The role of the ! Australian Labour and
Employment Relations Association

International Labour (ALERA) 2014

SAGE Publications Ltd,

Organisation in balancing Los Angeles, London, New Delhi,

Singapore and Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/0022185614528109
work and family in the jir.sagepub.com

21st century
Jane Hodges
Gender Equality and Diversity Branch,
International Labour Organisation, Switzerland

Introduction1
Having been created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles which ended the
hostilities of the Great War, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has
almost 100 years’ experience in addressing the important theme of balancing ten-
sions that pit work responsibilities against family roles and societal expectations.
With such a weight of history and time, one might be forgiven for expecting this
article to overflow with successes and positive examples, built up over decades of
normative work, policy advice, research and data collection, technical support and
capacity-building with the ILO’s tripartite (employer, union and government) con-
stituents. Yet, as with many fundamental principles and rights in the world of
work, equality for women and men remains a challenge.
The following section will cover the particular characteristics of the ILO and its
commitment to gender equality in general. Next I will expand on the International
Labour Standards (ILS) relevant to balancing work and family, with recent exam-
ples of good practices. In concluding, I will tempt the reader to examine in more
depth the structural reasons that appear to feed the tensions, and posit ways
forward.

Unique characteristics of the ILO

The ILO is the oldest United Nations (UN) specialised agency, having been estab-
lished in 1919, and is the only UN agency with a tripartite structure. Tripartism is
at the basis of the ILO’s 1919 Constitution. It involves representatives of

Corresponding author:
Jane Hodges, Gender Equality and Diversity Branch, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Geneva,
Switzerland.
Email: jane.hodges@bluewin.ch

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
Hodges 567

employers’ and workers’ organisations having equal voice alongside governments

(usually ministries responsible for labour and employment) in all ILO structures,
programmes and activities. Moreover, the ILO is the only UN agency that has the
exclusive mandate to address issues in the world of work. One special characteristic
is its system for adopting and overseeing the implementation of ILS. Today, there
are 189 Conventions adopted by the International Labour Conference (where all
ILO members gather in tripartite delegations) and 202 Recommendations. While
both types of standards carry weight, clearly the conventions, being treaties, are
open to ratification by States, whereas Recommendations give guidance and are
not open to ratification. The corpus juris of ILS is regularly overhauled to ensure
that only the most up-to-date texts remain open to ratification and in force. This
attention to remaining relevant and openness to review and reform could also be
classified as a particularly important characteristic of the ILS system of the ILO.
Since its inception, the ILO has worked on gender equality, with the very specific
principle of equal pay for work of equal value already incorporated into the 1919
Constitution. In fact, the areas of improvement listed in the Constitution’s
Preamble remain relevant in the 21st century. For example, these include the regu-
lation of the hours of work, including the establishment of a maximum working
day and week; regulation of labour supply; prevention of unemployment and pro-
vision of an adequate living wage; protection of the worker against sickness, disease
and injury arising out of employment; protection of children, young persons and
women; provision for old age and injury; promoting the interests of workers when
employed in countries other than their own; recognition of the principle of equal
remuneration for work of equal value; commitment to the principle of freedom of
association; and organisation of vocational and technical education, among other
measures.2
The statement on equal pay for work of equal value indicates that the founding
members realised that women would join the labour market in great numbers and
should be entitled to the same working conditions as men and as a legally enforce-
able right. Achieving a work–family balance is just one of the many factors that can
lead to a more equal society and more equal world of work for women and men.
Another particular characteristic of the ILO is its Decent Work Agenda. When
the four pillars of that approach of employment, social protection, social dialogue
and ILS (and which have been embraced by the UN system as a whole) are
promoted together in a gender-responsive way, women are economically empow-
ered and gender equality is promoted. Achieving equitable opportunities and treat-
ment for both women and men in the world of work is a formidable task, yet it is
critical to achieving decent work for all. Member States reaffirmed their commit-
ment to and instructions to the Office about improving work on men’s and
women’s equal opportunities and treatment in the 2009 International Labour
Conference Resolution concerning gender equality at the heart of decent work.3
The ILO believes that keeping women in the labour force makes good sense.
Empowering women economically and helping to make them central to poverty
alleviation solutions is a rights-based moral imperative. This also makes compelling

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
568 Journal of Industrial Relations 56(4)

economic sense: gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States is estimated to
increase by 9% if women’s employment rates are raised to the same level as those of
men. In the same scenario, GDP within the Eurozone would rise by 13% and in
Japan by 16%. On the other hand, restricting job opportunities for women in Asia
and the Pacific, where 45% of women remain outside the labour market, is esti-
mated to cost the region annually between 42 and 46 billion US dollars.4 The
success of national and workplace strategies to promote women’s equal opportu-
nities and treatment in labour markets and gender equality at work are dependent
on adequate and accessible maternity protection and family-friendly services and
measures. Supporting workers with family responsibilities also helps fathers to be
more involved in care of their children and to more equally share in responsibilities
in the home. With this in mind, the Congress Programme offers many opportunities
to demonstrate that ‘men care too’.

International Labour Standards

What are the gender equality trends in the 21st century? What effects have we seen
arising from the Global Economic Crisis?
It is clear that no society is free from sex discrimination. Implementation gaps
include lack of legislative coverage for certain categories of work where women
predominate, such as domestic and casual work; anti-discrimination laws that do
not cover all aspects of employment and occupation (from recruitment to termin-
ation); discriminatory legal provisions (e.g. laws which place limitations on the
types of work women can do, such as night work); and outdated laws governing
personal and family relations (such as those authorising a husband’s objection to
his wife working outside the home, as exist in certain middle-eastern systems). The
debate on whether women need to be protected from hazardous or night work is
not over yet. In an increasing number of countries, it is agreed that work needs to
be made safe for both women and men rather than excluding women alone from
certain occupations. Rather than barring women from male-dominated jobs, work-
places need to be made safe and free of health and other risks.5 Although progress
has been made on introducing such laws, the enforcement of the laws in practice
needs improvement.
The main ILS on balancing work and family is the Workers with Family
Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156 – ratified by 43 member States as at
January 2014, with several recent commitments), and its accompanying
Recommendation (No. 165). These two instruments firmly place equality of oppor-
tunity and treatment for both women and men workers with family responsibilities
within the wider framework of measures to promote gender equality alongside the
ILO’s Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111),
Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) and Maternity Protection
Convention, 2000 (No. 183).6
Convention 156 recognises the need to reconcile work and family (both children
and adult dependants) responsibilities. Factors such as long working hours have

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
Hodges 569

uneven effects on women, who are most likely to be the main care providers for
their families.7 The availability of childcare and commuting distances between
home and work is also relevant. Differences in the working patterns of women
and men have a negative impact on women’s job prospects, occupational choices,
careers and pay, while increasing their overall workload. In some ways, the avail-
ability of part-time work has opened doors to reconciling work and parenthood.
However, in most countries, part-time work remains ‘women’s work’, thus reinfor-
cing the traditional sexual divisions of labour. Women and men in developing
countries face additional challenges to balancing work and family, especially in
rural areas where time-consuming chores, long distances, poor infrastructure and
general poverty prevail.
ILO’s supervisory machinery8 has been tracking implementation of Convention
156, and over time noted many positive improvements. Some measures that have
been ‘noted with satisfaction’ or ‘with interest’ involve repealing unsatisfactory
legislation or introducing new statutory entitlements, other observations issued
by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and
Recommendations (CEACR) welcome practical innovations that have enabled
women – and men – to better balance their professional careers and family
responsibilities.
Observations have been addressed to ratifying countries with diverse legal sys-
tems and different socio-economic situations and cultures. For example, in 2012,
the CEACR noted for Chile the important statutory improvements in leave entitle-
ment on death of a child, as well as extension of adoption leave to both mothers
and fathers. The CEACR also noted with interest practical measures adopted in the
mining sector, such as the holding of workshops to raise awareness about sharing of
work–family responsibilities, creation of breastfeeding rooms and better measures
for the protection of pregnant women who work in this highly masculine sector.
Another example is the CEACR position on Australia, the host country of this
Congress. Australia was ‘ranked’ as having adopted measures of interest under
Convention 156 that year too, with the adoption of the Fair Work Act, and its
provisions to assist employees in balancing their work and family responsibilities.

The role of the ILO

The ILO has embarked on a number of programmes to address work and family
tensions and considers these have resulted in positive changes for balancing work
and family tensions.

Family responsibilities
Working families often face competing demands and trade-offs when reconciling
work with childcare responsibilities. Finding the right balance is particularly diffi-
cult for low-income families constrained by a lack of resources and limited access to
the quality childcare services that are vital to give their children a good start in life.

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
570 Journal of Industrial Relations 56(4)

Parents need support measures that make it easier to pursue decent work without
sacrificing their child’s development. To assist in sharing information on good
practices regarding this hard task, in 2012 the ILO produced a Working Paper
entitled ‘Good practices and challenges on the Maternity Protection Convention,
2000 (No. 183) and the Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981
(No. 156): A comparative study’. It presents 10 national case studies on
Conventions 183 and 156 and identifies opportunities for stepping up ratification
and implementation of these Conventions. An annex contains an annotated bibli-
ography of 150 relevant publications, making this a complete reference tool for
policy-makers and practitioners. Another recent ILO Working Paper offers an
integrated set of social sector investments that target the critical stages of early
childhood, from pregnancy through to care and development in the early years and
later childhood. This integrated approach can give families the support needed to
balance the competing demands of the labour market and childcare. Special atten-
tion should be paid to women who bear a disproportionate share of childcare
responsibilities and are consequently disadvantaged in terms of their labour force
participation and decent work opportunities. The ILO advocates that no mother or
father should have to choose between earning an income and caring for his or
her child.
Amongst member States, childcare is emerging as one of the most critical elem-
ents of systems to support working parents. The ILO’s programmes on the ground
in our 185 member States demonstrate the multiple advantages of childcare. These
include the promotion of gender equality, improving women’s opportunities for
employment, self-development and empowerment, helping to prevent the perpetu-
ation of social inequalities and intergenerational poverty, strengthening
families’ social and economic security, and reducing their vulnerability to risk.
Childcare facilitates the smooth and efficient functioning of labour markets,
through the full utilisation of society’s growing investment in women’s education
and a diversified labour force. Childcare also provides a stronger start for disad-
vantaged children, enhancing their physical well-being, cognitive and language
skills, and social and emotional development. It contributes to job creation in
the service sector to replace some of the unpaid household work and increases
tax revenues, since higher participation rates and earnings of parents increase
national production. Finally, in the longer term, appropriate childcare reduces
public expenditure on welfare and on remedial education and crime.
While there is good reason to stress the need for good quality childcare, the
concept of family responsibilities goes beyond children and ensuring that there are
no consequences of missed opportunities from neglect in early childhood, which
would reverberate throughout society and over time. Family responsibilities also
cover care of the elderly and other dependent family members.
The care of the elderly is a significant challenge in the 21st century. Together
with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in 2009 the ILO
produced research findings from the Americas called ‘Work and Family:
Towards new forms of reconciliation with social co-responsibility’.9 This

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
Hodges 571

report examines the international framework of guidelines and principles – such

as the ILS mentioned above – but also discusses the relevant roles of govern-
ment, employers’ and workers’ organisations, and civil society in bringing about
transformations to redress the imbalance between work and family life, espe-
cially in low-income families. The research highlights the key role of social
security systems, including for older workers, and makes the point that only
by combining a wide range of measures ‘will Latin America and the Caribbean
be able to achieve co-responsibility for caregiving and through it, the full exer-
cise of social and economic rights by both men and women, on equal terms’.10
Other studies demonstrate an as-yet-unfathomed interesting development: the
involvement of men in elderly care. Increasingly, it is recorded that men in the
United States worry about the conflict between caring for their parents and their
role as breadwinner. It is estimated that men make up nearly 40% of family care
providers, up from 19% in 1996. About 17 million men are primary carers for an
adult. Just as active fatherhood became more acceptable in the baby-boom gener-
ation, so has the caregiving role for many sons as their parents age today. Smaller
families and more women working full time have contributed to this shift. Men are
concerned that their caregiving would be held against them in the workplace,
feeding into the perception that men are more commonly preferred in recruitment
because they will focus 100% on their work.11

Domestic labour
It is important to highlight one group of workers who have traditionally been at
the core of family care as more women enter the labour force around the world.
These are the women and girls whose domestic labour enables other women (and
men) to make a career. This raises the question of the rights of these domestic
workers to a work–family balance. Female domestic workers have limited access
to protection and measures that help ensure safe and healthy pregnancies and
births, a replacement income while on leave and the right to return to their jobs.
Some 36% of female domestic workers globally do not benefit from legal entitle-
ments to maternity leave. Where maternity leave entitlements exist, their enjoy-
ment in practice is often hampered by lack of income replacement during leave.
Furthermore, a number of countries receiving migrant domestic workers have
laws or regulations that allow dismissal and/or repatriation of such workers
found to be pregnant. This is despite the fact that Convention 183 on
Maternity Protection aims to cover all employed women and prohibits discrim-
ination based on maternity. In the Decent Work for Domestic Workers
Convention, 2011 (No. 189), Article 14(1) requires members to take appropriate
measures to ensure domestic workers enjoy conditions not less favourable than
those generally applicable to workers in respect to social security protection,
including regarding maternity benefits. These measures are to be taken ‘in accord-
ance with national laws and regulations’ and ‘with due regard to the specific
characteristics of domestic work’.

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
572 Journal of Industrial Relations 56(4)

In the accompanying Domestic Workers Recommendation (No. 201),

Paragraph 25 states:

members should, in consultation with the most representative organizations of employers

and workers and, where they exist, with organizations representative of domestic workers
and those representative of employers of domestic workers, establish policies and pro-
grammes, so as to: . . . (b) address the work-life balance needs of domestic workers; and
(c) ensure that the concerns and rights of domestic workers are taken into account in the
context of more general efforts to reconcile work and family responsibilities.

The first 11 ratifications of Convention 189 are (alphabetically) Bolivia, Ecuador,

Germany, Guyana, Italy, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Philippines,
South Africa and Uruguay (as of January 2014). The relevance and importance
of ratification by these member States is reflected in the fact, among others,
that they have large numbers of female domestic workers in situations of precar-
ious contracts and underpayment, often being indigenous or migrating young
women unsure of their rights and entitlements, who will now – as implementation
follows the ratification – enjoy decent working conditions and social justice at
their work.

International best practice

Despite the introductory remarks about disappointment after decades of attention
to gender equality, there are some stunningly good practices in some countries.
Clearly, the Nordic experiences of paid paternity leave and use-it-or-lose-it rules for
men and women parents’ leave have proven to be winners for those societies. Other
positive examples of work–family policies are found in Chile, Croatia, India and
South Africa. In recognising that lack of childcare poses significant barriers to
women’s labour force participation, the government of Chile, which ratified
Convention 156 in 1994, has made considerable efforts to expand childcare services
as a means to create better quality jobs and to promote gender equality and
national development. Since 2005, the number of free public nursery places for
children aged three months to two years who are living in the poorest areas of Chile
increased from 14,400 to reach 64,000 in 2008; in addition, kindergarten places for
children aged two to four years, which numbered 84,000 in 2005, expanded to
about 127,000 in 2009.
In fulfilling its obligations under Convention 156 and other UN gender-related
instruments, in 2006 Croatia adopted the National Policy for the Promotion of
Gender Equality (2006–2010), which sets out a number of specific measures pro-
moting the sharing of family responsibilities between men and women and increas-
ing the availability of childcare services as a means of achieving effective equality of
opportunity and treatment between men and women workers.
The Mahatma Ghandi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme
(NREGA), launched by the Government of India in 2005, recognises the

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
Hodges 573

implications that family responsibilities carry vis-a-vis women’s ability to freely

engage in paid economic activities. NREGA includes on-site creches among
other worksite facilities, such as medical aid, drinking water and shade, that
local implementing agencies have to set out in order ensure the effective imple-
mentation of the employment-generating programme. The statute establishing
NREGA targeted having at least 30% female beneficiaries, but current tracking
data show that almost half of those working under the scheme are women. India’s
mobile creches, which can move around to different sites where women are
working, are also an innovation worth tracking.
In South Africa, the government is implementing a non-conditional cash bene-
fit programme, the Child Support Grant, in the form of child allowances paid to
the main child carers, with the concern of avoiding the reinforcement of the role
of women as primary carer within the household. The grant is not conditional on
the carer having to attend training sessions or performing unpaid community
work, a controversial feature of family and child allowances in other developing
countries. In May 2006, the total beneficiaries summed up to almost seven million
children. According to ILO research in 2013, South Africa’s social assistance
system – known as the grant system that includes seven grants, one of these
being child support – was reaching nearly one-third of the country’s population
of 50 million.12

Collective bargaining for work–family benefits

The above examples are government-led, but other parties in the ILO’s tripartite
constituency have been active as well. A 2008 survey conducted by the
International Organisation of Employers indicated that family-friendly policies
are a key ingredient in helping women return to the labour market, and noted
that flexible working time and accessible childcare are particularly important for
increasing maternal labour force participation. The ILO Bureau for Employers’
Activities has recently issued a training package on work and family, which
highlights the potential of employers’ organisations to be key drivers of work–
family policies, especially by providing guidance to enterprises on the benefits of
these measures and how they can be implemented. In order to promote the well-
being of workers and improve work–family reconciliation, the International
Trade Union Confederation, Public Services International, Education
International, the Global Union Federations and their member trade unions
have been active in advocating improvements in national legislation and policies,
supporting the collective bargaining processes and informing workers of their
rights. To promote the family-friendly workplace, trade unions have also been
working to increase the number of work–family provisions in collective bargain-
ing agreements. For their side, as with the example for businesses above, the ILO
Bureau for Workers’ Activities has published, and is actively using, a training
package to assist workers’ organisations in collective bargaining on gender
equality issues, including family-friendly policies.

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
574 Journal of Industrial Relations 56(4)

Conclusions
Examining gender-based differences in society – in order to understand their deter-
minants, consider ways in which they can be altered and take the measure of
change that is achieved – requires a good and well-maintained evidence base.
Data collection and related research should always accommodate sex as a basic
attribute and should include a dedicated analysis of the roles of men and women.
Efforts to advance knowledge and improve information sharing in this area should
be guided by the systematic collection of data showing what men and what women
do in labour markets, and more thorough analysis in reports of research findings,
paying systematic attention to sex as a variable.13
As the Report to the 2009 International Labour Conference concluded:

That sex discrimination has not disappeared from the world of work shows a lack of
political commitment and – in some contexts – legal laxity, but the underlying cause
remains embedded in societal attitudes. Development policies and programmes must
challenge stereotyped assumptions about gender roles which have become systemic in
social patterns, institutional structures and legal constructs in both formal and informal
workplaces. Despite so much attention to this issue in recent decades and the massive
entry of female workers into labour markets, this report shows that – in practice – more
progress could have been achieved if prejudices about what women can do and what their
male colleagues can do had disappeared. The striking example is the assumption, at all
levels and across most regions, that care work is the domain of women and not men.
Policies and programmes should be designed in ways which expand women’s opportu-
nities and choices, rather than restricting them only to traditional gender roles tied to
motherhood and the household. They should also involve men in ways that break down
gender stereotyping and open up possibilities for men and boys to take on a more active
caring role.14

In addition, de facto inequalities can be challenged by proactive measures that

eliminate structural barriers to equality between women and men in the world of
work, such as affirmative action, awareness raising, skills development, employ-
ment promotion, economic empowerment and reform of outdated systems and
practices.
The ILO argues that addressing the imbalances in work and family life is part of
the winning formula to achieve gender equality at work. Gender-related discrim-
ination is the most blatant result of the unequal division of labour between women
in men in both productive and reproductive work. The burden of reproductive
work – community and household chores, as well as care of family members –
falls largely on the shoulders of women and girls. This unpaid, undervalued labour
limits the time they can invest in education and training, as well as the location and
types of income opportunities in which women can engage. Linked to this is their
overrepresentation in precarious, informal work without legislative or social
protection, including for maternity.

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
Hodges 575

The ILO’s role in developing and promoting Conventions and Regulations for
member States to address gender, work and family inequities continues to be
important in setting international standards and norms, but the role of the tripar-
tite constituents themselves in ensuring that these Conventions and Regulations are
enforced is equally, if not more, important.

Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial,
or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes
1. Based on a speech made to the 5th International Conference on Community, Work and
Family, Sydney, Australia, 17–19 July 2013, organised by the Australian Institute of
Family Studies and the Universities of Sydney and South Australia.
2. ILO. Constitution and selected texts. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2011.
3. International Labour Conference. Report of the committee on gender equality.
Provisional Record 13, 98th Session, pages 13/64 to 13/78. Geneva: ILO, 2009.
4. Facts and figures on women, poverty and economics, factsheet, UN Women, year not
cited, New York, p. 1.
5. Haspels N and Majurin E (2008) Work, income and gender equality in East Asia.
Bangkok: ILO, p. 58.
6. The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW) 1979 also recognises the importance of sharing family
responsibilities.
7. In Japan, for instance, the average time men spent on domestic tasks was just one-
seventh of the time spent by women. Boulin JY, et al. (eds) (2006) Decent working
time: New trends, new issues. Geneva: ILO, p. 352.
8. For a description of the mechanism, often described as one of the most sophisticated
and efficient in the whole UN treaty bodies system, see ILO. Rules of the game: A brief
introduction to International Labour Standards. Geneva: ILO, Revised edition 2009.
Available at: http://www.ilo.org/global/publications/WCMS_108393/lang–en/index.
htm (accessed 13 March 2014).
9. Available at: www.ilo.org/gender/Informationresources/Publications/WCMS_111375/
lang–en/index.htm (accessed 13 March 2014).
10. UNDP and ILO (2009) Work and family: Towards new forms of reconciliation with social
co-responsibility. NY: UNDP and ILO, p. 16; for website link, see footnote 10.
11. Alzheimer’s Association and National Alliance for Caregiving (United States); Leland J.
More men take the lead role in caring for elderly parents. New York Times (New York),
28 November 2008.
12. The Child Support Grant reaches 11.3 million children under age 18 living in households
with income below specified ceilings, or 55% of all children. Fultz E and Francis J
(2013) Cash transfer programmes, poverty reduction and empowerment of women: A com-
parative analysis. Experiences from Brazil, Chile, India, Mexico and South Africa.
Geneva: ILO, p. 15. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—
dgreports/—gender/documents/publication/wcms_233599pdf (accessed 13 March 2014).

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015
576 Journal of Industrial Relations 56(4)

13. ILO. Gender equality at the heart of decent work. Report VI, International Labour
Conference, 98th Session. Geneva, 2009, para. 412.
14. ILO. Report VI, see footnote 13, paras 413 and 414.

Biographical note
Jane Hodges, BA, LLB, Post Graduate Diploma in International Law, Solicitor
and Notary Public, Trade Marks Attorney, is the Director of the Gender Equality
Bureau for the International Labour Organisation (ILO) based in Geneva. Since
joining the ILO in 1980, Hodges has served in the Freedom of Association and
Equality and Human Rights Coordination Branches (NORMES), the Southern
African Multidisciplinary Team (SRO-Harare), the Department for Government,
Labour Law and Administration (GLLAD) and, most recently, the Social
Dialogue, Labour Law and Labour Administration Branch (DIALOGUE). She
has broad experience in international and comparative labour law and has designed
and delivered training programmes in the area of fundamental principles and rights
at work, in particular gender equality, human rights and HIV/AIDS. She has rep-
resented the ILO in many UN bodies during her career, in particular advocating
International Labour Standards on non-discrimination with the treaty bodies. Ms
Hodges is the author of a number of articles and has contributed to books con-
cerning workers’ rights as human rights. Prior to joining the ILO, Ms Hodges
practised law in a large Sydney, New South Wales law firm as a Solicitor,
Notary Public and Trade Marks Attorney, having passed the relevant admission
board requirements. Hodges holds a BA in modern languages and an LLB
(Australian National University) and has undertaken international law postgradu-
ate studies at Sydney University (Australia) and The Hague Academy of
International Law (Netherlands). She has attained various postgraduate
Diplomas including Management of Interdependence of Developing Countries in
a Changing World (Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations,
Geneva) and Crisis Response Training (University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Disaster Management Centre, USA).

Downloaded from jir.sagepub.com at Tumaini Uni-Ingringa University College on February 17, 2015