Trade Unions Demand more Women in Government

ZaMirZine

07 March 2008

On the occasion of March 8, the International Women`s Day, the Women Committee of the Union of State and Local Administration warned of the problems faced by women employed by public administrative services. Although salaries of male and female civil servants are equal for equal tasks and obligations, the availability of best paid, high ranking offces is debatable.

The so-called `glass ceiling` phenomenon is best illustrated by the fact that, of the total of 15 ministerial positions in the Government, only three Ministers are women. The situation is not much better in terms of positions of state secretaries in individual ministries, held by 36 men as opposed to 10 women.

The Committee finds that, in spite of the fact that women make up 51.9 percent of the total population in Croatia and have higher rates of completion of higher education, and in offices where women make up great majority of employees, women still find the highest offices out of reach.

The Committee also objects to the fact that the central government body for administration doesn�t keep data on structure of employees by gender, although similar records are available on structure of education or age of employees.

Also, most heads of administrative offices, on all levels of government, are rather inflexible in terms of adjusting the working hours to the needs of mothers pre-school and school-age children and parents in general.

The Women Committee therefore proposes that the new Collective Bargain for Administrative Workers and Civil Servants should incorporate provisions that would regulate those matters appropriately.