Although gender equality and the advancement of women’s position in society are inseparable from democracy, women in the world are not sufficiently represented in any domain of socio-political life and are far from all decision-making levels. This is especially visible among Roma women who are among the most excluded groups in society. With the intention of reviewing whether and to what extent the situation has changed on the ground, particularly in comparison to 2020, we monitored the employment of Roma women in the state institutions.
The monitoring report in 2021 confirmed again that the employment of Roma women in state institutions in our country is still insufficient and that there are national institutions that have not employed any Roma women.
As an illustration, there is evident decline of 37% in the number of Roma women employed in the ministries, in which there were 77 in 2019, and only 46 in 2021. The largest number of employed Roma women (14) in the ministries is recorded in the Public Security Bureau at the Ministry of Interior (MoI).
Although there is a 73% increase in the number of Roma women employed in the local self-government units from 2019 to 2021, the number is not sufficient to note an adequate and equitable representation of the smaller communities in the institutions. In the institutions of the RNM Government, there is the highest percentage of Roma employees (that is, 3%), while only 27% of them are Roma women, which continues the series of instances of gender inequality. Out of a total of 166 monitored institutions in which 2,782 people are employed in management positions, only 6 are Roma women.
The complete monitoring report, which includes recommendations to the competent institutions, is available in Macedonian language here.
*The document is the result of the monitoring activities of the Informal Group for Advocacy of Roma Women’s Rights within the project “Employed Roma Woman = Independent Roma Woman”, supported by the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, conducted during 2022. This Informal Group, established in 2019 with the technical support of HERA, advocates for equal employment opportunities for Roma women in our country.
