Idea 446 of 500. Cluster 23: The women who are not working
Safety-audit services for workplaces, with a public rating
The mechanism, from the book
The single largest unused asset in the country is sitting at home, and the reasons are practical, not attitude.
Every idea in cluster 23 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Draft a one-page checklist covering lighting, toilets, transport, a harassment policy and night-shift arrangements, and ask the owner of one shop, office or factory to let you score them against it for free. Write the result as a plain rating, with what would raise it. The proof is an employer who asks to display the rating, or pays for a follow-up visit.
- Who pays first
- An employer struggling to recruit women, who pays for an audit because a public rating tells applicants and their families the workplace is safe.
- What leaves today
- Women and their families turn down jobs they cannot judge as safe; a published rating is the proof that lets them say yes.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. OneThe Letter That Says Yes and Means No
32% of adult women in work, against 70% of men
More from cluster 23
- 436Childcare co-operatives run by mothers for mothers, licensed and inspected, in every town
- 437After-school clubs at the schools, paid by the parents, run by teachers who want the income
- 438Women-only transport services for the night shifts and the early trains
- 439Home-based work platforms that pay properly: sewing, bookkeeping, transcription, design
- 440Shared workspaces for women with childcare attached, in Colombo and the district towns
- 441Women's craft co-operatives with a single brand and a single buyer abroad
Idea 446 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.