Praxis has conducted the analysis of the situation of gender equality in Smederevo within the project “Sexual and Gender Based Violence – Activities in Serbia”, which aimed to prevent and combat gender based violence in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, and was funded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
 
The goals of the analysis were presenting gender specific positions and roles the citizens of Smederevo play in the area of public and private life, determining the attitudes of male and female citizens of Smederevo towards gender roles, and the level of general knowledge they have about gender equality policies, both at the national and the local level; conducting a gender analysis of local policies in the City of Smederevo in the area of improvement of the position of refugees and internally displaced persons, Roma, youth, social protection, employment and improvement of the position of persons with disabilities; defining the recommendations for development of the active policy of equal opportunities for men and women in all areas of social life and achievement of gender equality in all areas of public and private life at the level of the City of Smederevo.

The analysis was preceded by the research on the attitudes the citizens of Smederevo have towards gender equality, which was conducted by “SeCons” in the period from 1 March – 15 April 2015. The research included 381 persons - 248 members of domicile population and 133 IDPs. A total of 188 women and 193 men participated in the research.

The results of the research conducted indicate significant gender inequalities manifested in a range of aspects, especially in terms of social position and roles played by male and female citizens in everyday life, both in the public (in the area of education, labour market, political participation, access to institutions and social media) and private life (partner and family relationship). The research also indicated that participation in different areas of social life is often determined by selection and participation mechanisms which are grounded on different forms of discrimination based on gender and IDP status. Only 6% of domicile male and female respondents were exposed to some form of discrimination. On the other hand, 22% IDP male and female respondents faced some form of discrimination in the area of public life. Discrimination most often occurs in an access to institutions, education system and in the workplace. Most of the male and female respondents from the subsample of IDPs (62%) believe that women are victims of discrimination more often than men in the area of work and employment. Also, 61% of male and female respondents of this subsample believe that women’s job is threatened because of family duties, more often than in case of men. Particularly worrying is the fact that male and female respondents most often decide not to report the cases of discrimination or to address persons of trust for assistance who are usually members of family and friends. Only a few did decide to report discrimination to the competent state authority, while a small number of male and female respondents decided to report discrimination in the workplace to the representative union.

The analysis also provides the recommendations which, in addition to the monitoring of the current legal regulations in the area of gender equality, refer also to promotion of positive and non-stereotypical image of women and men in the media, development of programs of support to self-employment of women and educational programmes on the protection of general health of women, with an emphasis of the reproductive health, improvement of the protection of women survivors of domestic violence, promotion of the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality, as well as the affirmation of the use of gender sensitive language in legal and political act of competent institutions.    

Download: Analysis of the Situation of Gender Equality in Smederevo