The project partners held their first meeting on 16 February 2016 in Ljubljana to highlight the current situation regarding the coordination policies and gender equality in each country.
Even though the relevant legislation in this area is good in principle and the EU legislation is implemented, the situation in practice is poor. Labour markets in the Western Balkans countries are quite non-inclusive in practice, and the gender gap with regard to the inclusion into the labour market is relatively large. Women are more qualified than men but under-represented in labour market, especially in the candidate countries. The reason lies in inadequate jobs for them, stereotypes, lack of availability or high cost of childcare, etc. Therefore, raising awareness of the importance of this issue, strengthening the role of the social partners in this area, and taking measures are crucial. The partners prepared a questionnaire in order to obtain detailed information on the situation in this field and to prepare a series of measures to ensure work-family balance more easily as well as to improve gender equality.
With financial support by the European Union.