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Description
This project addresses the unequal and discriminatory position of women on the labor market. Most unemployed people and employees with a fixed term contract are women. Women work in underpaid sectors and are victims of sexual harassment in the workplace. There is a systematic gender-based segregation of occupations on the labor market linked to the gender pay gap. Problems of reconciling private and professional life and career advancement mostly affects women putting them in a discriminatory position. Consequently, the gender pension gap contributes to the risk of poverty for older women. General objective: Strengthening the position of civil society organizations advocating an improved position of women and gender equality on the labor market. Specific objectives: Increasing the organization’s capacity in monitoring and advocating for gender equality on the labor market; Reducing discriminatory practices and improving women''s working conditions; Increased information and engagement of citizens on the position of women on the labor market. Project activities: Education and empowerment of civil society; Analysis, advocacy and legal advice; Public campaign. Target groups and beneficiaries in all project activities are: government institutions, CSOs, social partners, professional community, media, volunteers, women and the public. The project aims to achieve an understanding of gender equality in the labor market as well as the involvement and active engagement of all the above in addressing the discriminatory position of women on the labor market. CESI works on all activities and manages the project. The Gender Equality Ombudsperson gives expertise and influence in the activities Analysis, Advocacy and Legal Counseling as well as the Public Campaign. Señor Marketing Agency designs a social impact campaign on the position of women on the labor market. IWRA transfers knowledge in the field of gender equality on the labor market with an emphasis on advocacy strategies.
Summary of project results
With the Radnica project, we will work to improve the unequal position of women in the world of work. Research and analysis by CESI and other institutions and CSOs show that women are the largest group facing discrimination based on gender in the social, public and private spheres. Discrimination based on gender is most common in the field of work and employment, where women make up the majority of the unemployed. According to data from the CBS, women make up 59.7% of the total number of highly educated women, but they still mostly work for an indefinite period of time and in insecure forms of work, as well as in the underpaid sectors of trade, education, and social welfare. There is still gender-based occupational segregation on the labor market, which leads to a gender wage gap of 12.74% (DZS 2018). Sexual harassment in the workplace is a problem that women continuously face. The problem of advancement to higher work positions, returning to the same workplace after pregnancy, dismissals during pregnancy, employment interviews that invade the private sphere of life are the most common areas of work in which women are discriminated against. The unequal position of women during their working life also leads to a gender gap in pensions (21.54%), which contributes to the risk of poverty for women in old age. From the CESI database of legal advice, we can distinguish that most of the questions from women are focused on working conditions and dismissals due to pregnancy, which is a continuous discriminatory practice of employers. The lack of a National Policy for Gender Equality and a quality employment program for women in the Republic of Croatia, apart from the questionable Zažela program, further contributes to the problem. The night march in Croatia, which has been organized in recent years, continuously points to the discriminatory position of women in the world of work. Various relevant initiatives in the EU, such as the women''s strike organized by the partner organization IWRA from Iceland, are implemented with the aim of achieving gender equality in the world of work.
During the implementation of the project, 158 women, beneficiaries of legal counseling, received legal assistance for the purpose of protecting their labor and social rights. Representatives of civil society organizations, trade unions, institutions and the academic community worked through the informal initiative "Radnica" to advocate for gender equality in the world of work. Analyzes of the Labor Law and the Law on Maternity and Parental Support were made, and a proposal for gender-sensitive measures of the Labor Law was drawn up. The national campaign "It''s not OK in the office" was implemented, which was recognized and awarded in Croatia and in the region, but also as the top 100 most effective campaigns in the world according to WARC (World Advertising Research Center). As part of the campaign, over 20,000 citizens recognized the problem and signed a petition to amend the Labor Act in the article protecting pregnant women and persons on maternity and parental leave. In addition to various analyzes and requests to the Government of the Republic of Croatia that were submitted as part of the project and supported by various networks, organizations and parliamentary representatives, all advocacy activities were also supported by the Office of the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality. Through the project, meetings were also organized with the initiative of parliamentary representatives, where support was provided for parliamentary debates. This also strengthened the position of CESI in advocacy work on the topic of gender equality in the world of work. Through the bilateral cooperation with the partner organization IWRA, the already existing cooperation was additionally strengthened, through the transfer of knowledge and advocacy for the achievement of equality between women and men.
In advocacy activities, several activities were held until the middle of 2023, of which we single out a presentation on the reconciliation of private and business life and unpaid female work for the Main Committee of the SDP Women''s Forum, where basic concepts and legal solutions governing the aforementioned areas were presented and given recommendations for specific changes to the Labor Act and the Act on Maternity and Parental Allowances.
In addition to conducting the planned education project, we additionally organized two onial lectures at the suggestion of members of the Radnica initiative: "I want to be seen as professional at work" and "Attitudes about abortion in Croatia". Also, three members of the Radnica initiative are also members of working groups for changes to the Act on parental and maternity benefits and the Labor Act, which additionally contributed to information.
An unexpected result was a large number of citizens who signed the petition of the campaign It''s not okay in the office, which speaks of the impact of the campaign with which we managed to engage citizens.
Cooperation was achieved with the for-profit sector that donated their work on the campaign, such as the agency 404 and Human through the website, advertising, the creation of 4 YouTube spots that we did not foresee in the project but were subsequently realized, and through monitoring the campaign on social networks. At the invitation of the Rotary Club of Zagreb, we held a presentation about the campaign It''s not okay in the office. At the invitation of Zaposlena magazine, we participated in a mentoring program for unemployed women who start their own business precisely because of the Radnica project and the visibility of the campaign.
We expected that due to the partnership with the Office of the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality, there would be a greater possibility of advocacy activities in the field of gender equality in the world of work, and according to the competent ministry as well as the parliamentary committee, but the example of the ministry refusing the participation of the Ombudsperson in the working group is devastating in terms of the involvement of relevant institutions as well as civil society organizations in the process of adopting Amendments to the Labor Law.
During the project, we also joined other initiatives launched by CMS, the BaBe association, as well as the initiative of the Croatian Independent Trade Union "Za radnički ZOR", and we joined and connected advocacy activities. Babe Association joined our Radnica initiative.
Summary of bilateral results
As part of the study visit, CESI team visited the partner organization IWRA, which organized an exchange of experience and knowledge with experts for gender equality in areas of interest to CESI''s work. Among other things, we exchanged knowledge with IWRA on the process of creating a shadow report for GREVIO, considering that both CESI and IWRA worked on the same. Brynhildur Heiðar-og Ómarsdóttir, BHM (trade union), we visited with the aim of learning about the activities of trade unions in Iceland. From this year, Brynhildur took over the management of the BHM trade union, which is a smaller trade union but a member of the trade union association. Almost all citizens of Iceland are members of trade unions. We presented the newly founded SKUPA trade union, which Brynhildur was extremely interested in, because there is nothing like it in Iceland. Sigga Dögg, a sex ed educator, has been conducting education for high school students all over Iceland for many years, and she informed us about the lack of sex ed in schools as an institutionalized form of education. It was surprising for us, because the situation in Croatia and Iceland is almost mirrored. All the participants told us that the issue of feminism has become recognized as important, but that they do not agree with the evaluations of the world indexes of achieving gender equality and Iceland as a "paradise of gender equality". Topics such as xenophobia, racism and inclusiveness are considered new challenges, and there is a lot of discussion on the feminist scene about how to work on these issues.