The low participation of women in the labor market, the few opportunities offered to them, the conditions in which they work and the education of girls and women, parental leave, were some of the topics that were discussed in the Tuesday Salon with the topic : What opportunities does the labor market offer to increase the participation of women and girls – where should immediate interventions be made?
To discuss this topic were invited Narona Ahmeti from The Head Hunter Group, Vedat Sagonjeva, Director of the Prime Minister’s Office for Strategic Planning, and Zekirja Shabani, Investigative Journalist and Editor at ATV.
During this discussion, Vedat Sagonjeva, Director of the Prime Minister’s Office for Strategic Planning, stated that the participation of women and girls is very low, since there are not many opportunities for women in the labor market, another reason why women do not join the market of work are family and also cultural reasons. Sagonjeva stated that there are two age groups of women that must be addressed, the age group of women who are in the labor force but are not engaged in work and we have the other category of young women where a large number of them are engaged in technology. He has shown that they are currently working on the document for strategic planning for the next year, in which case five industries where the interest is very high have been identified, namely, ICT, the food industry, and the energy and green industry.
Meanwhile, Narona Ahmeti Daci from TheHeadHunter Group said that women empowerment will be done if there is flexibility at work or other opportunities such as working from home or working 50- 50. Parental leave is one of the other reasons that women are not active in the labor market and the number of women employees is also not large. Ahmeti Daci has added that it is not necessary that you must have a high education to be employed, while she has emphasized that women must first have self-confidence.
Meanwhile, Zekirja Shabani – Investigative Journalist/ Editor ATV has added that since 2014 there has been a change in the gender structure in Kosovo and the female gender in Kosovo is now increasing in terms of population. And from reporting as a journalist for 16 years now, academic achievement is not everything. Around 20 thousand girls from University of Prishtina graduate and we have less than 13 percent of women who have their own business, he added that we have educated girls in the wrong way. Shabani added that the man is the main obstacle, that the woman does not have a job, that the woman does not have an opportunity to travel, marginalizing her. We don’t count women for the work they do at home, 17 percent is the total unemployment, and all this brings us back to what we educate, investing in a society incorrectly.
