Women in the rural areas of Serbia as development potential – Political recommendations for innovative participants

In cooperation with Friedrich Ebert Foundation Center for Democracy Foundation implements this project which aim is to contribute to improvement of the position of women in the rural areas of Serbia. 

All labour market indicators in Serbia, year after year, indicate the limitations that women face at the labour market: far lower unemployment rate and higher rate of inactivity comparing to men. Position of women in rural areas is more unfavorable than those in urban areas: child care and care about older members of the household is almost completely transferred to them, they have limited access to education, and the majority of them are engaged as helping member in the households on the agricultural holdings. 

Majority of women in rural areas are neither on the unemployment evidence, nor they actively seek for job. Women in Serbia are not sufficiently in the focus of the employment policies, neither on the national nor on the local level. 

Through quantitative and qualitative research of the position of the rural women at local labour markets, through the promotion of good practices of the improvement of women position in the local communities and with establishing cooperation between women organizations and representatives of the local authorities, CDF wishes to draw attention on the importance of the involvement of women in rural areas to the labour market as a precondition of the local development.