Employment discrimination against women lawyers in Uganda: Lessons & prospects for enhancing equal opportunities for women in formal employment

This Thesis examines the employment situation of women lawyers in Uganda within the overall constitutional, policy, economic and legal framework governing employment in the country. Basing on the findings made from an empirical study of women and male lawyers at entry, mid and late career levels and on secondary data on employment in Uganda, the Thesis confirms that sex discrimination exists against women in formal employment at entry, and during employment in pay, training, promotion and other terms and conditions of work. It also confirms that sexual harassment against women in employment exists against professional women and that it curtails women in formal employment from enjoying equal opportunities at entry and during their employment. The Thesis argues that formal wage employment is one of the important vehicles through which women in Uganda and elsewhere can obtain access to economic resources for their sustenance, their children and their families. It also argues that sex discrimination in employment contributes to women's lower participation in Uganda's labor force; the job desegregation within professions and sectors and that it drives them into temporary, low paying jobs offering minimal job security and/or contributes to their early exit from formal employment. The Thesis notes that Uganda has put in place the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) as an overall Policy Framework to lift Ugandans, including women, out of poverty in Uganda. It further acknowledges that Uganda's Constitution prohibits sex discrimination and that the country enacted employment law reforms in 2006 that prohibited discrimination in employment. It notes, however, that these efforts are still inadequate in content and in their implementation/enforcement framework, respectively, to enable Uganda to fulfill its constitutional and international human rights obligations to combat sex discrimination against women in employment. The Thesis urges Uganda to prioritize formal employment for women within the formal sector and to adopt a human rights approach in addressing sex discrimination in employment. The Thesis makes legal and other administrative proposals that Uganda could adopt to reduce and to address sex discrimination against women in formal employment and to generally improve on the enforcement of its labor laws. It argues that unless this is done, qualified women in Uganda will continue to be discriminated against in access to and retention of wage employment. Such exclusion will in turn have an adverse impact on Uganda's economic development agenda and its efforts to economically empower women and to eradicate poverty in the country. Lastly, the Thesis argues that, acting in conjunction with other gender equality activists and Uganda's development partners, women lawyers should take a central role in mobilizing the legal profession to address sex discrimination within the legal profession. It also argues that the mobilization should focus on galvanizing the legal profession to embrace its constitutional and professional role to hold the Uganda Government accountable to its Constitutional and the international human rights obligations to address sex discrimination in employment within its ranks as well as among other non-state actors in Uganda.