Gender (In)Equality and Women Rights
«Deep in the heart, I know that every woman has but two options: become a feminist, or become a masochist.» Gloria Steinem
The 21st Century continues with that trend. Polarization The struggle for women rights in the world today has different meanings in different geographic regions. The economic polarization between the North/West and the South, as well as the different religious and cultural inheritance managed to polarize, among other things, the levels of achieved women rights. Certain geographic regions, thanks to the levels of economic development, went further in the advancement of women rights than others. The struggle for women rights is far more difficult if one has to fight poverty, famine, unemployment and illiteracy at the same time. Crime against women There is a great amount of evidence to prove the mistreatment and criminal behaviour directed at women all over the world. In some countries, one in six girls will be sexually abused before the age of 16; millions of girls will be forced into arranged marriages and birth before they reach 13 years of age, way before they reached the phase in which they would be either physically or emotionally prepared. Hundreds of thousands will be sold or kidnapped into prostitution in East and South Asia, and those figures are rising in Eastern Europe, too. In India and Pakistan, 90% of husbands beats on their wives regularly. In Africa, two million girls are disfigured by circumcision every year. In China, as well as in India, the mothers, pressured by tradition and social values, abort and kill their female offspring. Struggle for the Basic Women Rights Just as the problems of the South differ from the problems in the North/West, the implementation of women rights was divided into issues of realization of basic riths of women: the right to freedom of movement, freedom of expression, the right to education, access to information, adequate diet, health care, the right to own property, the right to work, reproduction rights and family planning, which are demanded in the South; and the fight for complete gender equality in all layers of a society, which is the main goal of women from the economically developped countries. Gender Equality The women in the developped countries of the North/West, after several centuries of struggle, won their basic human rights. The statement is not an exageration, having in mind that only fifty years ago, women were not allowed to vote, that one hundred years ago, they couldn't own property. The problems today are somewhat different, but no less painful, humiliating or serious. The issues of gender equality include the linguistic discrimination, discrimination at the work place, in education, public presence and political decision-making. Unfortunately, in the West, too, physical, sexual and psychological violence in the family are very much alive and present, and not sanctioned well enough. Women Rights in the SEE For the women in Southeast Europe, from the formal point of view, there is no such thing as discrimination in the Constitution or the legislation. The informal discrimination, however, is much greater than in the countries of the West. In Croatia, for instance, there is no state service or institution that would help and provide shelter to women and children, victims of family violence. When in danger, a woman can rely exclusively on friends and family. If there is no such help, there is nothing she can do but suffer more violence. The existing legislation, the inertia and inefficiency of the legal system play in favour of the perpetrator of violence. The sole shelter for battered women was opened and ran by one NGO, which is close to closing down its operation because of insufficient funds. Last year's survey on gender discrimination in school books presented a disastrous situation: women were represented either as old grandmothers or fickle beauties. Bosnia & Herzegovina Women human right in Bosnia and Hercegovina are still far from being complitelly recognized. Woman make more than half of the population (51%) in BiH, but they are not even close to being proportionally present in the sphere of labour and social relations (employment rate of women is about 44%), in the political life (about 14,2%), or in the political parties (about 18,5%). Considerably higher percentage of women is employed in education, health and social care sector - about 62%. The Low on Gender Equality was adopted in May 2003, but its implementation started only 3 weeks ago and Gender Centers were formed within the state Agencies for gender equality. Among the tasks and responisibilites of those Centers are collecting and providing information on gender related issues in the state. This Law promotes, regulates and protects gender equality, and guarantees equal opportunities to all the citizens, both in public and in private spheres, and bars direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of gender, particularly in the areas of education, economy, employment and work, social and health care, sports, culture, public life and media, irrespective of marital or family status. Report on the state of the Women’s rights in BiH for 2003, done by Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH HCR) is stating that delayed processes of implementation of the Law on Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina further compound the problems and reproduce the relations which suppress women and marginalize their rights in the decision-making, privatisation, employment, violence and discrimination in the family and in society in general. Labour laws in BiH are providing equal opportunity for employment for men and women but it’s often the case that employers are not willing to employ women because of the possibility that they go to maternity leave or use sick leave for taking care of their children. Sexual harassment is present as well. BH HCR reports on the survey conducted by the Gender Centres of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska within the Gender Equality and Equity Project in BiH, on a sample of 600 interviewed persons, indicates that sexual harassment or abuse exists in all environments, but what is troubling are the responses which speak of the attitudes of women population toward such behaviours. 87,62% of them deem that they were not exposed to some form of sexual harassment, but even if sexually harassed, 33,33% of women claim that it was by their colleges, and 37,33% claim that it was by their superiors. According to the same survey, 17,6% of men and 7,9% of women from the sample does not see an invitation to intimate relations as sexual harassment or abuse, which indicates that women do not recognise various forms of sexual harassment as such. The problem of domestic violence is very pronounced in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately, this form of violence is still enshrouded in a veil of silence and rarely spoken about in public. The most frequent victims of domestic violence are women (mostly in the age of 25 to 35), children and even elderly. According to unverified data – since comprehensive research into this problem was never conducted – estimates are that violence is present is one out of four families. Another pronounced problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina is human trafficking. Unfortunately, trafficking in human beings, and abuse of women for prostitution is on increase in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Until recently, Bosnia and Herzegovina was just a country of transit and destination, but all indicators available show that it has also become a country of origin for this problem. Serbia Beginning of women and feminist movements in Serbia date from period before World War II, as part of women social democrat acting in workers parties or union organizations. With prohibition of communist party, student female organizations started to emerge. In pre-war years, many women took part in strikes and anti-fascism movement [Antifascist Women Front]. After the war, in Belgrade as well in others cities, women movements start to embody themselves into initiatives that take care for economic, political, and social equality of women. In the area of ex Yugoslavia, feminist initiatives and groups start to develop in the end of seventies. Research essays on sociological and anthropological issues on international basis were initial impulse for communication between women scientists that study dimensions of women discrimination. Women movement become important social and political actor in serbian society. Other turnover in feminism and women movement development were dates of founding of SOS phones for women and children – victims of violence. In Belgrade, first of its kind was established in 1990. After 1992, in Serbia, Vojvodina and Montenegro, more than fifty women NGO’s were founded. In the end of nineties, in Serbia, women studies started as alternative way of education, explaining post-feminism terminology, period of cyber-feminism and feminist look on globalization and neoliberal concept of new economy, pointed out important role of cheap labor and women trafficking in flow of capital and profit driven economies. Today, women present above 50% of total population in Vojvodina and Serbia. Indeed, the group of 10.8% of women in Serbian Parliament is far away from the Peking Declaration, which recommends women representation with minimum of 30% on the all levels of authority. Province government of Vojvodina make the most effort on the gender issue and equal possibilities for both man and women in the last three years. As a legal body, there is a Secretariat for Gender Equality, which emphasize legislative role in setting up of a crucial framework for women and gender questions. After all and before everything, there is a matter of choice, and that is that every women can choose her role in society, and there the feminism issue become excessive. Problems to solve are society conditions for making such choices in local, regional and international dimensions. Albanija Albania has been under the communist totalitarianism and, hence, has encountered many difficulties. With the coming of the democracy in our country, Albanian people started to change the mentality, because they had the means of seeing the foreign world and better opportunities. It is true that the political change influenced in the changing of the attitude of women issues. During the last years the Albanian women started gradually to gain control of their life and started to become economically independent, as well. They were more requested for better-paid jobs. This is a thing, which brought good, showing at the same time the inner resistance/obstruction to changes from local community and namely the family with its defined roles. On one hand they were more independent and broadened their knowledge and started to think about themselves as having equal rights with men, but on the other hand it brought problems within the Albanian families and mentality. Albanian men (in villages mostly) are not always open to letting their wives work, because according to the mentality they have to take care of the children. Hopefully, this attitude has started to change in the main cities. Women are facing economic discrimination in Albania concerning job discrimination because there are some cases of women managers or directors, but they win these places with more difficulty than men do. Anyway we can say that the situation of women rights is getting improved. Kosovo Before the 1990s there was practically no women’s movement in Kosovo. When the bombings started in 1999, however, there were approximately ten active Albanian women’s organisations. After the war, the number of organisations has increased significantly, going up to 600 registered women NGO’s. This is partly due to that it is no longer prohibited for Albanians to get organised, which was the case during the Serb regime in the late nineties. The growing number of organisations is also a result of the extensive foreign aid that has been channelled to women’s empowerment projects in Kosovo. Many organisations today work with psychosocial support to women and with issues related to women’s health. Others focus on education in human rights or on improving women’s chances to get a job through different types of vocational training. The key obstacle for women in Kosovo remains the bad economic situation. Traditionally, there have always been more men than women in Kosovo. A great number of people from Kosovo have emigrated and are part of Kosovan diaspora, where the percentage of males is higher than that of females. Statistics issued two years ago show that more recently a reverse trend has emerged. Out of the overall number of population, women in Kosovo make up 51.2% of it. Makedonija Women in Macedonia enjoy a position of gender equality, albeit that the equality is more de jure then de facto. Nevertheless, regarding the issue of gender equality, Macedonia can be listed among the countries with a “long” tradition of gender equality. However, just like in the other countries in the region, the achieved levels of equality are mostly due to the rapid advances in emancipation of women during the period of socialist, which has guaranteed, more declaratively than practically, the rights of Macedonian women. All that was said about the stereotypes, efficiency of the legal system, relationships in the families in both urban and rural areas, education, etc., and other aspects of women rights is a virtual mirror image of the situation regarding women rights and gender equality in the region in general. ------------ Further improvement in realization of women rights and gender equality can be achieved only by groups of women and enlightened men, who will continue lobbying and work on educating the public and raising its awareness about this issue. In addition to such groups, the women themselves should invest the individual effort to free themselves from the chains of ignorance and to widen their horizons by taking over new social roles, new rights and responsibility for their own lives. Of course, the most important thing: They should stop believing that they can't do it. «The most important thing in the life of a woman is to avoid setting limits for herself.» .. Martina Navratilova |
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