In Serbia 40 Percent of Women Excluded from Labor Market

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Women are in a far worse position than men in finding employment, and as many as 40 percent of women are outside of the labor market, which is a lot higher than in the EU, Women at a Crossroads society member Svetlana Cerovic said on Nov. 20. 

At a news conference organized after a publication called, Completing the Circle: The Position of Women in the Labor Market at the Start and End of Their Careers, done in association with UniCredit Bank, came out, Cerovic said that the publication contained a comparative analysis of the labor market for women and men at the age of 45. 

“When they finish their careers, the circle closes and women find themselves at the beginning again, without the expected success. Women at this age struggle to get by and for their future,” Cerovic said. The author of the publication and director of the SeConS program Marija Babovic said that “women at the end of their career are the first to be sacked as a result of redundancy, restructuring, new technologies, etc.” 

The publication shows that 260,000 women at the age of 45-64 do not have a right to pensions, while 14.6% have given up on trying to find a job after failed attempts to find one.  Babovic stressed that “60 percent of young women who are inactive because of their family and child care said that they would start to work if they could find the right job.”  

“We see difficulties in the labor market for young women, when they are already employed they are additionally threatened when they form a family and become mothers and this is something that seriously discriminates them compared to others,” Babovic said. 

Tatjana Prijic from the Office of the Gender Equality Commissioner has said that “women in the job market are subjected to mobbing and specific forms of discrimination.” “They are frequently questioned about marriage and planning a family, when starting a job. Women are not allowed to advance, to use sick leave, and even their work contracts are cancelled,” Prijic noted.