TIRANA, March 30 – Stereotypical attitudes and practices are working to the disadvantage of Albanian women and girls in all areas of society, a UNDP study on gender equality has found.
Over 80 percent of the respondents reported that it is usually women who do the laundry and iron clothes, clean the house, cook and wash dishes.
“Women and men have different perceptions about their contributions within the family. Men are more likely than women to say that housework are equally divided between them and women. Women reported spending more 4.66 hours on household chores a day comparing to men 2.71,” the survey shows.
Asked if the wife should sacrifice her career for the family, a majority 80 percent of respondents said they agreed.
Women were more likely than men to report that they take care of their children and do not get any support from their husbands.
The study reveals that there is less agreement with traditional gender role in better-off families.
The higher the level of family income, the lower the level of agreement with the statement “a good wife should obey to her husband, preserving family peace and well-being.”
“Change will require joint effort – a movement really – from multiple institutions including parliaments and municipal councils, journalists and high society leaders, imams and priests, professors and labor leaders, but the time is now,” said Brian Williams, the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Albania.
“Unequal sharing of family responsibilities, for example, has implications for women’s access to education, employment, public office, training opportunities and participation in voluntary activities,” he said.
The study was drawn on 450 interviews conducted in four Albanian regions with a focus on the division of household chores; the division of responsibilities for childcare, perceptions and attitudes towards the role of women and men in the family, employment and income, money management and career-family balance. It recommended areas of intervention to increase the participation of women and girls in the labor market and the contribution of men and boys in the house.
Recent legal changes have introduced 50 percent of women representation in municipal councils in local elections following the general elections 30 percent quota on candidate lists, but failed to translate into concrete number despite significantly increasing women’s presence in decision-making.
Albania climbed 13 steps to rank 70th among 140 countries in the 2015 Global Gender Gap report published by the World Economic Forum on improved economic, educational and political indicators. The result marks Albania’s best ranking since the inaugural 2006 edition when Albania ranked 61st out of 115 countries.
“Albania has improved its overall ranking by 13 positions since 2014. However, it is also the country from the region that has progressed the least over the past 10 years on the educational attainment and health and survival subindexes,” said the report.
Albania’s best position in the report was in the political empowerment indicator due to a higher number of women in parliament and in ministerial positions.
