Zagreb, 16 November 2009 – Hostility towards women at the labour market is omnipresent, it vas said at today’s round table organized by newspaper and Internet portal business.hr and Mreža znanja (investment and consulting firm).

Women represent the majority in population but minority in employment, warned Jagoda Milidrag Šmid, County Representative of the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia (UATUC) for the City of Zagreb, adding that women are segregated at the labour market and work primarily in commerce, manufacturing industry, education, health care, social services and public administration.

According to the data of the Central Bureau of Statistics for 2008, the employment rate for women was 37.5 and for men 52.2 percent.

Milidrag Šmid said that the female gender combined with the age above 45 years results in unemployment and added that soft totalitarianism is in effect in Croatia and we are not aware of it.

The information that wages of men at the beginning of their careers are 10 percent higher than the wages of women, and when they reach higher positions men’s wages are even 25 percent higher than the wages of their female colleagues, also shows the superiority of men at the labour market, said the Director of Selectio company Jasmina Sočković.

There is open discrimination in Croatian society, even though this is prohibited by law, said Sočković and added that our society is only facing subtle discrimination. She also pointed out the global phenomenon called “glass ceiling” where women cannot reach the highest executive positions, and the fact that there is only 8 percent of women at such positions illustrates this phenomenon.

Presidential candidate of the Croatian People’s Party (HNS) Vesna Pusić remembered her research from 1979 which showed that wages of men were 30 percent higher than the wages of women. So far a small progress of only five percent was made, and three decades have passed, said Pusić.

Looking back at the role of the state in employment of women Pusić said that the state should ensure crèches, kindergartens and school education for children in only one shift, and that maternity leave should be limited to 12 months. Out of those 12 months, 3 months should be specifically for fathers what would significantly change the situation at the labour market.