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KEP AUSTRIA: SHE-ROES project debates on women on the labour market and gender and motherhood wage gap

Over 60 final-year bachelor’s and post graduate students as well early-career professionals with basic knowledge in econometric methods, attended the Roundtable held in Skopje on 6 July aimed at increasing public awareness of and interest in the gender and motherhood wage gaps in Macedonia.

The meeting, under the title “Women on the labour market: Stereotypes and challenges”, meant to raise interest and critical thinking in order to identify causes and solutions as well as provide proof of the effects it has on women, the labour market and households in general.

Dominika Stojanovska from the UN Women Organization talked about the Progress of the World’s Women report (2015 - 2016) in terms of the economic and social implications of the gender equality. She also highlighted the causes and effects the gender wage gap had in terms of the economy and society; Zhaklina Geshtakovska Aleksovska, representative from the Programme Increasing Market Employability (IME), talked in terms of innovative HR practices the private sector could implement in decreasing the gender wage gap; Sanela Skrielj from the Foundation for Support of Women and Youth Entrepreneurship – Egalite also tackled the problems women in Macedonia are facing in terms of labour market participation and access especially for those living in the rural parts of the country and Marija Bashevska from Reaktor – Research in Action, talked about the reasons why women in Macedonia are inactive in the labour market.

The Rountable was held back to back with a workshop on “Gender and motherhood wage gap: Policies, data and econometric methods” on 5 July. The gathering aimed at providing information and improving skills of the youth researchers to apply different econometric methods in researching the gender wage gap. The training targeted young ambitious economists interested in research, analysis and in learning the different econometric methods in researching this economic issue.

Both events were organised within the KEP AUSTRIA Project "Heroes and she-roes”: Knowledge for analysis of and advocacy for equal pay for women and mothers in Macedonia (SHE-ROES)", where Austria acts as know-how provider (The Vienna Institute of International Economic Studies, Vienna) and Macedonia recipient institution (Association for economic research, advocacy and policymaking “Finance Think”, Skopje).

The results of the overall study will eventually be published as a form of manual for gap estimations and to help improve the tool already developed by Finance Think for testing gender-neutral wage in Macedonia, i.e. www.edplako.mk. The idea of EdPlaKo-MK has been awarded First Prize for Social Innovation by the United Nations and the Ministry of Finance of Macedonia. 
  • Rountable agenda available here
  • Press release of Rountable available here
  • Rountable gallery available  here
  • Workshop gallery available here
   *** The KEP AUSTRIA - part of CEI Know-how Exchange Programme - is financed by Austria, with funding provided by the Austrian Development Cooperation (based on an agreement between the Central European Initiative and the  Austrian Development Agency (ADA). The Programme aims at promoting capacity building and technical assistance through know-how transfer from CEI EU to CEI non-EU Member States.


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