Discounts in boutiques and cosmetics stores, flowers, free drinks in a cafe... Another eighth of March in Montenegro, instead of a date symbolizing the struggle for rights, will be marked as the one day of the year when, according to the generally accepted opinion, women should be pampered . Female citizens, at least those we talked to, do not think that their rights are threatened because of their gender.
"I may even have bigger ones, because men are generally gentlemen towards women, and now if I could choose, I would rather be a woman than a man," said one of the passers-by in Podgorica.
Another added that she had "never experienced such a situation where I was injured, denied a right because I am a woman".
Research, on the other hand, shows that women in our country, precisely because of their gender, are either denied some rights or unequally available compared to men.
Some of the problems were tried to be illuminated by the Parliament of Montenegro and the NGO Center for Women's Rights, during the panel entitled "On equal terms - balance between private and business life".
The President of the Assembly Danijela Đurović said that "although more successful in education, which is confirmed by the fact that women in Montenegro complete 67 of the total number of specialist and 61 percent of master's studies, they still make up 44 percent of the employed and active population and earn less. Only them 31 percent will be in the best-paid jobs, while even two-thirds will perform the lowest-paid jobs."
In addition to the long-recognized problems, such as violence, economic dependence, bigotry, sexism and hate speech, which have been simmering in Montenegrin society for years, one of the key ones, which is hardly talked about, is the problem of harmonizing family and business obligations. In our country, as confirmed by research, it is understood that the burden of housework falls on women.
"As the UNDP research shows, women in Montenegro will spend ten years of their lives doing unpaid housework," Đurović emphasized.
Maja Raičević from the NGO Center for Women's Rights pointed out that, "in Montenegro, the market routinely exploits women's work, whether it is about underpaid employed women, the feminization of helping professions or the constant reliance on unpaid work by women in the home. + Many women they still see informal housework and care work as their expected role, and accept it as such".
The European Union, however, is working to change that. A directive has been in force since last year that sets minimum standards for paternity, parental and guardianship leave and establishes additional rights, such as the right to request flexible working arrangements.
The Ambassador of the European Union in Montenegro, Oana Kristina Popa, said that "research shows that, on average, globally, women perform 75 percent of total unpaid care work, including childcare, elderly care, cooking and cleaning, and that women at twice the risk of losing their jobs. Some will say it's our culture or our customs. However, we can change culture and customs in all our societies, with the right laws and the right role models."
True change, however, does not begin with a law, but with an attitude. The next time you turn on the machine, spread the laundry, clean the dust, ask yourself if it really comes down to it just because you are a woman, or if household chores, when they are already unpaid, should be divided into equal parts.
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