Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) - Nicaragua (Ratification: 1967)

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Article 2 of the Convention. National policy of equality of opportunity and treatment. The Committee observes that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), in its concluding observations, notes with concern, inter alia: (1) women’s and girls’ underrepresentation in vocational and higher education in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics; (2) women’s disproportionate burden of unpaid care work and their concentration in the informal economy and self-employed work; (3) the requirement for women applicants to produce a negative pregnancy test result to access employment; and (4) legislation, public policies and practices which reinforce patriarchal attitudes and discriminatory stereotypes concerning the roles and responsibilities of women and men in the family and in society. The CEDAW also makes various recommendations to the State party in this connection (CEDAW/C/NIC/PCO/7-10, 30 October 2023, paragraphs 25, 26, and 35 to 38). The Committee emphasizes that occupational segregation and over-representation in non-standard forms of employment, or the stereotypes about the respective roles of women and men in society, as well as their capabilities and aspirations, are part of the structural inequalities that disadvantage women and exclude them from acceding to the labour market and to quality jobs, or from enjoying decent work. Similarly, the unequal distribution of unpaid care work in the household tends particularly to affect women’s employment. The Committee also indicates that the practice of requesting women seeking employment to undergo pregnancy testing constitutes a serious form of sex discrimination (General Survey, 2023 “Achieving gender equality at work”, paragraphs 29, 98 and 377). The Committee requests the Government to provide information on any measures adopted to: (i) prevent stereotypes of the roles and ambitions of women and men; (ii) promote women’s access to a range of jobs and training in particular in occupations where men predominate and in sectors where women are less represented, such as the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics; and (iii) adopt measures which promote redistribution of unpaid care work with a view to facilitating better labour market access for women.