We constantly come across articles and events that are organized with the aim of supporting women in business and encouraging girls and women to use their skills to start their own businesses, so that they could have the opportunity to hire other people and become more empowered.

Fortunately, many of them find support from various organizations that offer small grants to start with something, which they then have to manage themselves. But even if they don’t succeed in growing the business, at least they remain independent and self-employed women.

In Tuesday’s Salon, organized by D4D and supported by Swedish Embassy, the audience had the pleasure of hearing advice and different journeys from three very successful women who were part of the panel: Zana Tabaku, Shqipe Breznica, and Melita Ymeraga.

When you are in front of these women, you see how willing women are for work, who, despite the difficulties and prejudices, today hold their heads high after their successes, which the skeptics were left silent.

But not all women in Kosovo have their own destiny and will. In fact, for such a journey, you have to be pretty strong and the type that is popularly called “officious”, to survive, and even more so, to grow your business. Especially when it comes to stereotypes.

According to a D4D research in 2021, there is a deep division of occupations based on gender-based stereotypes. Women continue to be underrepresented in the field of industry, construction, and other sectors that are considered male occupations. The labor market continues to reflect the division of professions based on gender, where as a result the high representation of women (49.7%) continues to be employed in the education, trade, and healthcare sectors, professions which are traditionally considered suitable for women.

But not only that, women are prey to traditional stereotypes, which are still among us and prevent them from a full-time job.

The D4D Report on Increasing Women’s Access to Employment shows that the division of responsibilities related to family commitments and family care continues to reflect deep inequality, which reflects on women’s access to full-time work.

Statistics show that in 2020, 25% of women work part-time due to family commitments compared to only 2.3% of men.

But something quite important, and as a woman of this country makes me proud, is that women are more educated than men, but this is not reflected in relation to employment, according to the D4D report.

In 2019/2020, women and girls in Kosovo completed university education in public universities by a margin of 60% more than men (about 65% of graduates at the bachelor level were women), but only 48.9% of women with university education level are employed compared to 70.5% of men.

Undoubtedly, most of the challenges that women face in their economic empowerment and independence are rooted years ago, starting from the family. A concrete example is the small number of women who inherit property from the family.

Until 2019, only 17% of women had property registered in their name (land, apartment, or other capital), about 18% of them were business owners, from them only 15% received bank loans for the purpose of developing businesses, according to the report published by D4D.

This does not mean that we cannot fight these injustices, and fight unemployment as well as provide support for women in business. In the “Future Employment Strategy Studies” by D4D, it is shown that some good initiatives have been taken to support women affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The Government of Kosovo has drawn up two specific measures within the Program for Economic Recovery. The first was implemented through the Agency for Gender Equality, with a planned budget of 2 million euros, where 1 million euros were used to support 115 private kindergartens hit by the pandemic crisis, and 1 million euros were allocated to support activities for the empowerment of women in economics. With 1 million euros, the Agency has directly supported 24 NGOs in the implementation of projects aimed at supporting the socio-economic position of women and has provided financial support to 273 businesses.

In the near future, I wish that all girls in the country will have space and conditions, and above all, they will decide on the life of their dreams, on business, and whatever they have the will to do.

This editorial was written as part of the Tuesday Salon supported by the Swedish Embassy in Kosovo, Community Development Fund (CDF), and Human Rightivisim.