prijava
SARAJEVO, February 15 (FENA) - Data on the representation of men and women in institutions, education, health and academia have been published in a publication entitled "Women and Men in Bosnia and Herzegovina" prepared by the BiH Agency for Statistics.
The findings of last year's research were presented today in Sarajevo, when the importance of gender statistics in policy making was pointed out.
Director of the Agency for Statistics of BiH Vesna Ćužić reminded that this institution produces statistics from the gender structure of the BiH population every year, and as one of the data that worries her she singled out the fact that in BiH only four percent are female mayors.
This is also the biggest gap presented in BiH when it comes to gender statistics, at the same time there are many more highly educated women than men in a certain age set of data, which is why Ćužić believes that more attention should be paid to such data.
Director of the Agency for Gender Equality of BiH, Samra Filipović-Hadžiabdić, says that there is a legal obligation to classify statistical data by gender, but in many institutions it did not come to life, which took a long time to produce the publication presented today.
She says that there is some progress when it comes to the representation of men and women in institutions and in decision-making positions in general, but she still cannot be satisfied with the current situation. But it is a long-term process in which the whole of society needs to be involved.
World Bank analyses have shown that countries where better gender equality is more economically stable, and only an increasing number of women with secondary education raise GDP by two percent.
The Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina has provided seven million euros in the last seven years to promote gender equality, and has worked with governments, institutions and NGOs on these issues.
Jurgis Vilcinskas, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to BIH, believes that women are globally discriminated against and underrepresented in many areas and underlined that gender equality is not just a question of human rights but a question of the overall progress of society in economic, innovative and every other sense.
He stated that there is a big gap in gender equality in BiH, stating that at the EU level, 30 percent of women are on the boards of public companies, while in BiH, 15 percent of women are in those positions. He also reminded that this issue is one of the key to BiH's progress on the road to the European Union.
(FENA) A. B.
