EQUAL - Towards closing the gender gap in balancing professional and private lives of employees

Gender equality is an important dimension of social development because it reflects the level of respect for human rights and points to the roots of discrimination. Gender analysis for Serbia shows that despite the progress, "gender inequalities continue to exist". The multi-faceted phenomenon of gender inequality includes the domains of labour, money, time, knowledge, health and power according to the Gender Equality Index for the Republic of Serbia.

There is a dichotomy in the field of paid and unpaid work when it comes to caring for children and other household members, as well as the dichotomy of work and leisure time. The lack of support to women for attaining a balance between work and family life has a great impact on other areas of gender (in) equality in Serbia. The project will be implemented by Ministry without portfolio in charge of demography and Population Policy and Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation.

 

GOALS

The project aims at promoting equality by addressing the causes of the gender gap regarding balancing professional and family lives. The project aims to highlight the obstacles faced by employees in balancing work and family life:

• Increase employee knowledge of labour rights through manuals and debates

• Increase employers' knowledge of the benefits they are guaranteed by law when employing women and vulnerable groups

• Involvement of local government actors in solving this problem

 

RESULTS

• Publication of a manual for establishing a work-life balance for employees

• Public debates in 20 cities in Serbia - presentation of the manual for the employees

• Publication of a manual for establishing a work-life balance for employers

• Info sessions for representatives of 30 companies in Serbia - presentation of the manual for the employers

• Training for 30 HR managers

• Conducting and publishing a survey on local needs when it comes to work-life balance

• Training for 20 local secretaries in charge of socio-economic issues in municipalities

• Conducting and publishing a survey on the balance between work and family life

• Panel discussions in Belgrade, Kragujevac, Nis and Novi Sad for all project participants- presentation of the two surveys

• National Conference

This page has been prepared with financial assistance by the European Commission. This document represents the views of Minister without portfolio responsible for demography and population policy and Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation and is only their responsibility. 
The European Commission does not accept any responsibility for use that may be made of the information contains therein. 

The Project EQUAL - Towards closing the gender gap in balancing professional and private lives of employees is supported by the 
European Commission Rights trough Programme Equality and Citizenship Programme - REC Programme.