Gender Equality National Report Hungary - European-microfinance ...

Since 2000 the Family-friendly Work-place Award 11 has been given to work-places that
give accentuated priority to the respect of family duties.
It has proved that such work management effectively increases the competitiveness of the
firm while it is also advantageous to staff with families. The motivation, satisfaction and work
efficiency of the staff are enhanced unambiguously by a management practice that
harmonizes the interests of work and family. It results in reducing stress, fluctuation or the
time of absence from work for health reasons. Thus it is possible to keep highly qualified,
obliged staff and to increase efficiency and creativity in the long run, which means profit for
any company with long-term objectives.
The application includes issues like the proportion of women in management, how many men
and women participate in training whether there are measures specifically aimed at
enhancing men’s family obligations, whether events organized at work or other perks are
open to family members as well, or whether the work-place supports those who return from
maternity leave. In view of labour it is important to offer the opportunity of part time jobs or
tele-work, to create compulsory working hours and possible working hours and to have a
collective agreement and training aimed at enhancing competitiveness preferably organized
within working hours. From a social viewpoint we must welcome benefits that increase the
social security of employees (family starting and maternity support, school starting support,
contributions to pension schemes etc.), or health protection (medical tests, passes to
swimming pools, recreational support etc.) or supplementary services like alternative
daycare, support of children’s institutes. 51 applications were assessed in 2007. The awards
were given in the categories of small, medium-sized and large companies as well as bodies
of state administration.
Gender equality on the basis of the report by the World Economic Forum 12 -
international comparison
In the "Gender Gap Index" report of the World Economic Forum in 2006, Hungary took
position 55 among the examined 115 countries. The "Gender Gap Index" examines the
extent of equal chances for men and women in four major fields: economic participation,
educational attainment, institutional influence on political life and finally health and general
life expectancy. The final ranking of countries is formed by these indexes.
The index of the world organization measures women’s equality with men in the following
four categories:
- economic participation and opportunities (gender partition of employees, partition of wages,
estimated income per gender, decision-makers, officials, gender partition of managers,
gender partition of skilled workers)
- qualification, education outcomes (literacy, students at different levels of the education
system)
- health and survival (life expectancy at birth, sex ratio at birth),
- participation in political decision-making (members of parliament, ministry officials, state
leaders).
Apart from the old EU member states Hungary is preceded by all the other Central Eastern
European countries and a number of Asian and African countries as well.
The sub-indexes show a colourful picture:
11 www.szmm.gov.hu
12 Global Gender Gap Report 2006 – World Economic Forum Geneva, Switzerland 2006
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