Today is International Women’s Day, something that is celebrated more exuberantly in some countries than in others. Whether or not Women’s Day is celebrated where you are, it is important to give some thought to the position of women and to their achievements.
This is not only useful and important in general, it is also relevant with regards to the efforts to move towards family-based solutions in alternative care.
It is generally acknowledged that women play a huge part in raising children. And yet, surprisingly little credit is given for this. Saying that I do not just mean that raising children is hard work, whether you do it as a stay-at-home mom, or as a working mother trying to balance bringing in the money to live on and spending enough time with your children, although that in itself deserves more praise than it gets.
I also mean that women who successfully raise their children – and this is the overwhelming majority of them – save the government and society enormous amounts of money (as well as time and other resources), money that does not need to be spent on providing out-of-home care (whether in institutions or in families), that does not need to be spent on dealing with the effects of criminal or anti-social behaviour or on mental health collapses, and so on. Children who were raised in their own family, have a much smaller chance of needing a wide range of interventions later on in life caused by the effects of having been separated from their families and in some cases by being institutionalised. That is quite an achievement, one that is often reached with little or no outside support. And one that could be reached in far more cases, with just a little bit of support.
Women raising their own children, are not the only ones to be admired and praised, in this context. So are the women who take in other people’s children – whether related to them or not – to raise them in a family environment. This could be temporarily, in a kinship or foster care situation, or permanently as an adoptive family or under Kafalah.
And, although we are fighting hard to eliminate institutional care, I think it is only fair to also take a moment to appreciate all the women working as caregivers in institutions. They are not the ones who decided to take children away from their families to profit from it. They are the ones who do whatever they can for the children in their care, even though what they are able to offer is very limited when burdened with the responsibility for 20 children or more. They are the ones who work really hard for a very small wage, who are often deeply invested in the well-being of the children, even though they are unable to improve their situation.
All these women can use our support and appreciation for what they do. And hopefully we will be able to help strengthen and empower both the adult women and the little girls by advocating family strengthening measures and family-based solutions for all.
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