Importance of women's political empowerement - Gurmai Zita
Importance of women's political empowerement - Gurmai Zita
Importance of women's political empowerement - Gurmai Zita
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16<br />
Experiences form Bosnia and Herzegovina<br />
without children, with high as well as low education level. This became a crucial issue for our<br />
party.<br />
Applying a strategic approach we succeeded in getting equal support from men and women for<br />
this new way <strong>of</strong> work. This was a great step forward. We applied gender mainstreaming in<br />
every issue we were dealing with. Implementing activities, which were not directly connected to<br />
gender equality, we used the opportunity to include the gender equality aspect with no fuss or<br />
opposition whatsoever. Our experience is that this is the simplest and the most effective way to<br />
do it. The essential thing is to be aware about gender and what effects different actions have for<br />
men and women, as well as the practical skills and knowledge how to integrated gender in<br />
concrete activities. We did it by selecting topics; by using gender sensitive language; by making<br />
sure that equal number <strong>of</strong> men and women participated in each dialogue; by engaging female<br />
keynote speakers, analysts and activity participants etc. Step by step the number <strong>of</strong> women in<br />
the Presidency <strong>of</strong> the Forum <strong>of</strong> Trade Union as well as the number <strong>of</strong> female leaders at the<br />
local level increased. Through the work in this Forum Social Democratic Party <strong>of</strong> BiH started<br />
focusing on the issues <strong>of</strong> importance for everday life <strong>of</strong> ordinary people. Forum was also a<br />
valuable contribution before and after national elections, which resulted in an election victory.<br />
After general elections in 2010 and before the forming <strong>of</strong> the government in the BiH Federation<br />
we have also organized a big conference with the title: “Social justice as a precondition for<br />
economic development” with a special panel on “Women in the labour market in BiH”. Half <strong>of</strong> all<br />
speakers in the panels were women.<br />
This Forum was crucial for the formulation <strong>of</strong> specific policies <strong>of</strong>fered by the SDP BiH at general<br />
elections in 2010. These policies naturally integrated a range <strong>of</strong> issues, which would be<br />
traditionally considered as “women issues”: maternity protection, disabled women,<br />
unemployment <strong>of</strong> young women and many others. At the recent Congress <strong>of</strong> the SDP BiH the<br />
party accepted a special Resolution, which was dealing with these issues.<br />
Thanks to this Forum, governmental Platform <strong>of</strong> the Federation <strong>of</strong> BiH mentions among other<br />
the following: just solution for paid maternal leave, plan to combat violence against women,<br />
integration <strong>of</strong> male and female disabled persons in labour market, social protection <strong>of</strong><br />
unemployed etc.<br />
Strongly intensified contacts between party and Trade Union leaders, resulted in the TU open<br />
support to the Platform <strong>of</strong> the new coalition government for the BiH Federation, made <strong>of</strong> four<br />
parties and led by SDP BiH. This support was later on formalized in a Protocol <strong>of</strong> cooperation<br />
between the new Federal government and the Federation <strong>of</strong> Free TU.<br />
And last but not least, the activists <strong>of</strong> the Forum decided to stay in close contact with the people<br />
also after the elections. We visit our constituencies and discuss with the people the plans and<br />
the moves <strong>of</strong> our government specifically concerning pressing economic and social challenges.