Fifty years following the inauguration of 8 April as the International Romani Day, Roma women in Macedonia continue facing hardships in accessing the labor market on account of the long-standing systemic discrimination.
This is illustrated by data which show that only 4 Roma women occupy managerial positions in public institutions, and among the non-managerial positions they account for mere 0.47% of the total staff. Even though Šuto Orizari is the largest municipality in the country with prevailing Roma population, out of the 18 staff employed in the Municipality, only 8 are Roma. It is a shocking fact that not a single Roma woman is employed with the Centers for Social Work. In the 30 Employment Centers in the country, only two employees are Roma, both occupying non-managerial positions.
Out of the total of 7,647 persons who have used the active employment measures and services in the course of 2019 on the national level, only 169 are Roma women, which is a devastating fact if we consider that 4,632 persons or 4.6% of the registered unemployed persons are Roma women. According to the National Operational Plan, out of the total number of registered unemployed Roma women on the national level, as many as 94.88% have no education or have completed only primary education. These shocking findings undoubtedly indicate that systemic arrangements are necessary to improve the socio-economic situation of the Roma women in our country.
These are but a few facts revealed by the Equal Employment Opportunities Advocacy Group in the course of 2020, when they examined this issue and lobbied the key institutions. The analysis paper entitled “Employed Roma woman – strong Roma woman” makes an overview of the situation of the Roma women on the labor market by analyzing the data on the involvement of Roma women in public institutions and on the utilization rate of the employment measures and programs by the Roma women. The data were obtained by gathering the publicly available information from a total of 141 state institutions.
Therefore, the Group addressed the following recommendations to the responsible institutions:
- The Employment Service Agency of the Republic of North Macedonia should initiate a process of designing appropriate employment measures or adapting the existing measures in a way that they will correspond to the current situation and needs of the Roma women, which will be based on data and proposals that will originate from the very community.
- The focus should be placed on completion of education and offering specific trainings to the Roma women so as to build their capacities and award them the qualifications required for the jobs in demand.
- Roma women should be employed at key managerial positions so that they can design and propose arrangements in compliance with the specificities of this target group, especially in the area of employment.
- Long-term gender-sensitive approaches should be developed in every institution so as to increase the participation of Roma women in the public administration.
- Local self-government units should provide in their action plans measure for employing Roma women in their administration, especially in those municipalities where the Roma population is represented to a greater extent.
We call on the responsible institutions to take these recommendations into account when they design the next policies and measures of the Operational Plan on Employment if they truly want to enable an equal access to employment for the Roma women and reduce the gender gap in the country.
The Advocacy Group comprises Roma women activists and was formed as part of the project “Roma women advocating for equal employment opportunities” that is implemented by HERA – Health Education and Research Association, supported by the Swedish “Kvinna till Kvinna” Foundation.
Contact person:
Sibela Mamudoska |077 675 725| mamudoskasibela@gmail.com
