Introducing gender parity to Kosovo's public boards
Despite women attaining higher levels of education on average, only 14.4% of women are in the workforce in Kosovo, compared to 46.2% of men.
The government said it is aiming to increase women's participation in the workforce to 20% by 2024.
Photo: Courtesy of Saranda Baruti.
Baruti is the mother of two children under the age of five. Her husband owns a business and also works full-time, so being able to leave work early to pick up her children from kindergarten is important to her. Baruti also said that she was pleased with how she was treated at the company during both her pregnancies.Policies like flexible scheduling, childcare at work, maternity and paternity leave help keep women employed. But these are not often properly implemented at companies in Kosovo either public or private.The Kurti government campaigned on revising the maternity leave law and it is in the process of doing so now. The plan, according to Kelmendi, is to add paternity leave and to provide the minimum wage of 250 euros a month for six months to all new mothers who are unemployed.
So far, 21% of the people to receive job appointments from the Kurti government have been women.
Bronwyn Jones
Bronwyn Jones is a former editor at K2.0. She has master’s degrees in Media Studies and International Affairs from New School University in New York.
This story was originally written in Albanian.