In Montenegro, power is firmly held by men. They are at the head of three key institutions in the country. Even two decades have passed since the first, and for now the only time, the Assembly of Montenegro was led by a female president. There is no party headed by a woman in the Parliament today, and in terms of the percentage of female MPs, last year we were almost in the same rank as Afghanistan.
The European Commission also recognizes this problem for Montenegro. In the latest report, it is stated that the involvement of women in political life "remains limited - there are no women among the leaders of political parties and very few of them in the leadership of parties".
For example, until the end of last year, only men were in the presidency of the Bosniak Party (BS). The situation changed after the president of the party, Ervin Ibrahimović, was appointed as the vice-president of the Assembly. Having taken over the party's parliamentary club from him, Kenana Strujić Harbić became a member of the BS presidency by function.
Although the program advocates "the participation of women at all levels of decision-making, presence in the creation of public policies, special quotas in the electoral system...", Bosniak is one of the rare parties that does not have a woman in the position of vice president.
"The fact that I am the president of a municipal committee and a member of the Parliament of Montenegro is the result of an inclusive political vision inherited by my party," Strujić Harbić said for Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG).
She did not, however, answer an additional question about how she commented on the fact that BS did not have any women in management positions until just a few months ago, but she did send a congratulatory message to women on the occasion of March 8.
"I believe that the example of the Bosniak Party is the best proof that women can and deserve to be in decision-making positions. We are the only parliamentary party that has a head of the club of deputies", she boasted.
The situation is even worse in the Workers' Party (RP), which is part of the parliamentary group of the Democratic Front (DF). In addition to the president, Maksim Vučinić, its presidency consists of three vice-presidents and two other members. There are no women among them.
Vučinić told CIN-CG that the current leadership of the RP was elected at the party's extraordinary assembly at the end of 2019, after the sudden death of its founder Janko Vučinić.
"The Workers' Party is a young party with continuous growth, so after the next regular party assembly in 2023, we expect a representation of at least 50 percent of women in all party bodies," he promised, adding that there are women on the election lists.
The situation is better in the parties that form the backbone of the DF - the New Serbian Democracy (NSD), the Democratic People's Party (DNP) and the Movement for Change (PzP).
Simonida Kordić and Maja Vukićević each cover one of the four vice-presidential positions in NSD and DNP. Branka Bošnjak is one of the three in PzP. When it comes to the presidencies of these parties, the situation is different. Women make up almost a quarter of the members of the NSD presidency, a fifth in the DNP, and a sixth in the PzP.
Danijela Đurović holds one of the three vice-presidential positions in the Socialist People's Party (SNP), and she is in the party's fifteen-member presidency together with Slađana Kaluđerović.
When it comes to Democrats, out of five vice-presidents, only one is a woman - Zdenka Popović. She is also one of only three women in the thirty-seven-member presidency, as stated on the party's website. The Democrats also have a Democratic Council, in which there are two women out of 13 members.
Ksenija Milović is among the three vice-presidents of Demos, and the party's announcements emphasize that half of the members of the presidency are women.
URA and SD have female directors
The civil movement URA and the Social Democrats (SD) are the only parties that have women as directors.
The political director of the URA, Ana Novaković Đurović, says that lately it has been noticeable that the parties are striving to appoint women to decision-making positions, but that their participation in politics in Montenegro is still far from the European standards we strive for.
"The fact is that women are generally far away from the key 'negotiating table' between political subjects, and that men are responsible for the essential decision-making, while women are expected to carry out those decisions. This is exactly what distances us from true equality," she told CIN-CG, adding that women should not perceive such opportunities as a privilege and an honor, but as an equal opportunity that belongs to them just as much as men.
SD director Irma Nišić said that if we take into account the fact that women make up more than half of the population in Montenegro, it is clear that their representation in decision-making places is insufficient.
"Our ancestors won for us the right to vote, the right to be educated, to work, the right to decide about our bodies and lives. We have seen how when retrograde processes take place, women's rights and human rights as a whole are always the first to be attacked. I believe that we all have a responsibility to improve society," she told CIN-CG.
Dritan Abazović's party has four vice-presidents, including Jovana Marović.
Damir Šehović's party has three, including Milica Lekić.
URA has 21 members of the presidency, of which only four are women, and the same number of women are in the twenty-member presidency of SD.
Vuksanović Stanković: I don't want women to be seen as numbers
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) currently has no women in the vice-presidential position, and there are only four in the twenty-eight-member presidency. Among them is MP Draginja Vuksanović Stanković, who was the president of that parliamentary party.
When asked if she faced obstacles due to being a woman while leading the party, Vuksanović Stanković told CIN-CG that within the party - "absolutely not".
"I was proposed by the SDP as the first female candidate for the state president in the history of Montenegro, even though the president of the party at that time was Ranko Krivokapić. They estimated that I should present that candidacy. As for other aspects outside the party, it is not easy for women in politics," she said, noting that she was personally the target of sexist attacks and threats.
Vuksanović Stankovi points out that he does not want women to be seen as a number, that they should be at least 30 percent on the list, but that the value of each woman should be recognized and that she can take responsibility for a certain political function.
"I think that we women who are currently on the political scene set an example of how a woman should fight for what she believes should be the interest of the citizens," she said.
Among the four vice-presidents of the Liberal Party (LP) is Dubravka Vujičić. Of the 18 members of the presidency, six are women.
President Andrija Popović has seven advisers, two of whom are women.
LP spokesman Ammar Borančić told CIN-CG that the position of women in today's Montenegro is marked by discrimination, and that is why the party strives to promote the strengthening of women in decision-making positions in practice.
"There are women at the head of several important boards, such as Bar, Budva, Nikšić, Cetinje or Mojkovac. The LP Women's Forum has intensified its activities and is preparing a proposal for the 50+ initiative, which will promote the participation of over half of women in the structures of the party, and then the state, instead of the current 30 percent, which will give women real power, not statistical significance." he said.
Among the four vice-presidents of the Democratic Party of Socialists is Sanja Damjanović. She and Aleksandra Vuković are the only women in the sixteen-member party presidency.
Some parties have women in the presidency, but they do not have women in the position of vice-president. The United, Prava and Albanian parties did not respond to CIN-CG's questions about the number and position of women in the party. According to unofficial information, these parties have women in the presidency, but not in vice-presidential positions.
Citizens' group CIVIS, which is part of the "Black on White" coalition, does not have a presidency as an organ, but it does have, for example, a general secretariat. This executive body has 10 members, three of whom are women. CIVIS said that vice-presidents will soon be elected at the assembly and that gender equality will be taken care of.
The Law on the Election of Councilors and Members of Parliament stipulates the obligation that "at least 30 percent of candidates of the less represented gender" must be on the electoral list, and that there must be at least one woman among every four candidates on the list in order.
In its latest report, the EC states that electoral lists meet only the legal minimums when it comes to gender equality. Some, as could be seen in the recent example of Beran, did not succeed in this either.
"The visibility and, what is even more important, the voice, that is, the extent to which women are heard in parliamentary politics, is a direct reflection of the visibility and voice of women in Montenegrin society. The position on women's visibility becomes quickly clear through the language used. As long as the majority of people - both women and men - in Montenegro believe that being president does not mean the same as being president, the (in)visibility and (in)audibility of women will be where it is," she told CIN-CG Čarna Brković, assistant professor at the Department of Cultural Anthropology, University of Göttingen.
She points out that there are several activist organizations that have been working for years to transfer the knowledge and expertise they have to state institutions, media and parliament. As examples, she highlighted the ANIMA Center for Women's and Peace Education from Kotor, the Center for Women's Rights and the Safe House for Women from Podgorica, and the Bona Fide Center in Pljevlja.
He says that all social actors and actresses should carefully start listening and following what activists have been saying on this topic for several decades. There are very good, elaborate mechanisms to fight against the invisibility and inaudibility of women in political life - perhaps it would be time for Montenegro to start listening to and respecting female experts on this topic, which there really are.
In recent weeks, there has been speculation in the media about the composition of the new Government, which would consist of a very small percentage of women. In the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić, out of 12 ministries, four are headed by women.
Commenting on the appearance of electoral lists in the elections in Berane where there were not even 30 percent of women, the co-presidents of the collegium of the Women's Club, Branka Bošnjak and Vesna Pavićević, assessed that there are still parties in Montenegro that are trying in every way to erase women from the political scene.
"Instead of taking the route to Europe with 40 percent of women on all election lists, certain parties in Berane did not even comply with the legal minimum on their lists," they stated in a joint statement.
In the coming months, Montenegro is expecting regular or early elections in most Montenegrin municipalities, as well as in the capital.
Bošnjak and Pavićević agree that parties that do not seek to affirm gender equality in Montenegro should not participate in the elections.
Bosniak: The law ensures one vice-presidential position in the parties
The current convocation of the Parliament of Montenegro has 22 MPs, among whom are four vice-presidents of the parties and also members of the presidency of the parties they represent. There are five more MPs in the party presidency.
"I believe that through changes to the law that treats political parties, a mandatory quota for the less represented gender must be prescribed, as well as a binding one vice-presidential position in the parties. This would stimulate more women to get involved in politics," Bošnjak, who is co-president of the Women's Club of the Assembly, told CIN-CG.
According to her, the current situation and the huge number of inappropriate sexist and misogynist attacks on women involved in politics certainly discourages new forces from entering the political field.
"It is not easy to be a politician in Montenegro, especially if you are visible and have a clear position, then you are a target, but most often your views are not discussed, but your private life, your appearance, appearance, your expression are commented on... is inadmissible. It often slips away from our colleagues, which is unacceptable, because I don't know that anyone ever comments on them in that way. That is why in Montenegro, full of prejudices, women in politics are more vulnerable and exposed to attacks".
The women's club was founded a little over a year ago. Among the activities they achieved in that period is that they enabled, among other things, that with their amendments to the Criminal Code, the ministry's obligation to keep a register of perpetrators of crimes against sexual freedom against minors, enabled an increased number of attempts at medically assisted insemination...
Through the amendment action, they managed to increase the allocation from the budget for 2022 for the State Archives and that these funds be dedicated to the realization of the scientific project "Women in Montenegrin Patriarchal Culture 1879-1918".
"The project was created as a result of decades of work by ethnologist and archivist Slavka Jovićević. For the first time, 'from a woman's pen', we will have the opportunity to get to know how our ancestors lived in the late XNUMXth and early XNUMXth centuries. With a new, gender-aware approach to the reinterpretation of the historical and cultural identity of Montenegrin women, we hope that the historical injustice towards our ancestors will be corrected and they will be given their deserved place in our history and culture. The women's cultural and historical heritage of Montenegro requires to be researched in more detail, preserved from oblivion and presented as an inseparable part of our overall heritage, and this is only the beginning of our contribution, as a Women's Club, to that goal", it was announced earlier from that working body of the Assembly.
According to data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Bosnia and Herzegovina saves Montenegro from the last place in the region in terms of women's participation in parliaments.
Montenegro has 22 female deputies out of 81 seats in the Assembly - 27,2 percent, while the North Macedonian Assembly has 120 seats, 50 of which are occupied by female deputies - 41,7 percent. Serbia has 100 female deputies out of 250 seats (40 percent), and Albania has 50 women out of 140 available seats (35,7 percent). In July, it was announced that among the 120 seats in the Assembly of Kosovo, 43 are occupied by women (35 percent). BiH has two parliaments, and both are below the Montenegrin average when it comes to women's participation.
Croats had a head of government and state, Kosovo had two heads of state
Although we often emphasize that we are leaders in European integration, Montenegro lags behind the European Union and the region when it comes to the position of women in key state institutions.
If it wasn't for Vesna Perović for a short time at the head of the Assembly (2001-2002), Montenegro would still not be able to boast that it had a woman at the head of the parliament, government or state.
The situation in the countries of the region is quite different.
Neighboring Croatia also had the president of the government and state - Jadranka Kosor and Kolinda Grabar Kitarović.
Serbia has a prime minister, Ana Brnabić, and it also had a president of the National Assembly, Maja Gojković.
Kosovo even had two female presidents - Atifete Jahjaga and now Vjosa Osmani.
The head of the Albanian Assembly is President Lindita Nikola.
Radmila Šekerinska led the Macedonian government in an acting capacity for a short period.
Bosnia and Herzegovina did not have a woman at the head of the three-member Presidency or the Council of Ministers, but the president of the Republika Srpska was Željka Cvijanović, and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was Borjana Krišto.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
