INTERVIEW: “The weekend’s protests were the Russian peoples’, not the opposition’s” – Maxim Reznik
Western Balkans citizens legally resident in EU equal to 14% of region’s population
International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has stripped Belarus of the right to hold the World Championship this year
Alexei Navalny arrested on arrival as he returns home
Russia's NorNickel adopts blockchain for supply chain management
Russia goes ahead with eSIM technology
Russia's retailer X5 Group posts 13% sales growth in 4Q20
National Bank of Ukraine retains a key policy rate at 6%, the outlook of the CPI deteriorates
Western Balkans and Ukraine urged to scrutinise coal subsidies
Oligarchs trying to derail Ukraine’s privatisation programme, warns the head of Ukraine’s State Property Fund
VISEGRAD BLOG: Central Europe's populists need a new strategy for Biden
LONG READ: The oligarch problem
OUTLOOK 2021 Lithuania
EBRD says loan to Estonia’s controversial Porto Franco project was never disbursed
Czech MPs pass protectionist food law in violation of EU rules
M&A in Central and Eastern Europe fell 16% in value in 2020, says CMS report
Hungarian vehicle makers hit by supply chain shortage
COVID-19 and Trump’s indifference helped human rights abusers in 2020
Polish industrial production continues boom in December
OUTLOOK 2021 Poland
OUTLOOK 2021 Slovakia
BRICKS & MORTAR: Rosier future beckons for CEE retailers after year of change and disruption
FDI inflows to CEE down 58% in 1H20 but rebound expected
Pandemic pushes public debt close to 80% of GDP in Albania and Montenegro
BALKAN BLOG: Superstition and resentment surround vaccination plans
Albania needs reforms for e-commerce to thrive, says World Bank
Bosnia's exports in 2020 amounted to BAM10.5bn, trade deficit to BAM6.3bn
Retailers and restaurant owners threaten protests in Bulgaria if reopening is delayed
Bulgaria's Biodit first company to IPO on new BEAM market
Bulgaria’s government considers gradual easing of COVID-related restrictions
Spring lockdown caused spike in online transactions in Croatia
ING: Growth in the Balkans: from zero to hero again?
Labour demand down 28% y/y in Croatia in 2020
Kosovo’s biggest opposition party risks being unable to run in general election
OUTLOOK 2021 Moldova
Storming parliaments: New Europe's greatest hits
World Bank revises projection for Moldova’s 2020 GDP decline to 7.2%
Montenegro’s special prosecution probes finance minister over €750mn Eurobond issue
North Macedonia plans to cut personal income tax in IT sector to zero in 2023
Romania government to pursue “ambitious” timetable for justice reforms
Private finance mobilised by development banks up 9% to $175bn in 2019
OUTLOOK 2021 Romania
BALKAN BLOG: US approach to switch from quick-fix dealmaking to experience and cooperation
Slovenia’s economic sentiment indicator up 2.2 pp m/m in January
Slovenia lost €10bn by neglecting wood industry for decades
OUTLOOK 2021 Slovenia
Slovenia’s opposition files no-confidence motion against Jansa cabinet
D’S Damat franchise deals ‘show Turkey’s hard-pressed mall operators becoming their own tenants’
Turkey’s benchmark rate held as concerns over faltering recovery come to fore
Turkish lira breaches HSBC’s stop-loss, Turkey ETF signalling outflows
CAUCASUS BLOG : What can Biden offer the Caucasus and Stans, all but forgotten about by Trump?
Armenia ‘to extend life of its 1970s Metsamor nuclear power plant after 2026’
OUTLOOK 2021 Armenia
OUTLOOK 2021 Azerbaijan
OUTLOOK 2021 Georgia
Iran’s President Khamenei menaces private citizen Trump
Iran’s technology minister indicted for failing to properly implement internet censorship
No US move to rejoin Iran nuclear deal imminent, say Biden national security nominees
TEHRAN BLOG: Will Biden bet on a quick return to the Iran nuclear deal?
Central Asia vaccination plans underwhelm, but governments look unruffled
Fears of authoritarianism as Kyrgyz populist wins landslide and backing for ‘Khanstitution’
Mongolia, island of democracy
OUTLOOK 2021 Mongolia
Mongolia's PM quits amid protests over treatment of mother with coronavirus and newborn baby
Mongolia's winter dzud set to be one of most extreme on record says Red Cross
OUTLOOK 2021 Tajikistan
OUTLOOK 2021 Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan: How the Grinch stole New Year
COMMENT: Uzbekistan is being transformed, but where are the democratic reforms?
Download the pdf version
More...
More than 100 years since International Women’s Day was declared a national holiday in post-revolutionary Russia, the day is still widely celebrated across the successor countries to the Soviet Union and in Central and Southeast Europe.
Yet as a new survey from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) reveals, gender bias is still widespread across the region, in line with the global findings of the research.
Across the 75 countries accounting for over 80% of the world’s population studied for the report "Tackling social norms: A game changer for gender inequalities", UNDP researchers found that 91% of men and 86% of women show at least one clear bias against gender equality in areas such as politics, economic, education, intimate partner violence and women’s reproductive rights.
In the 18 countries from Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe and Eurasia included in the Gender Social Norms Index, 86% of respondents had one gender bias, and 64% held more than one.
Respondents to the UNDP study who revealed at least one gender bias. Source: UNDP
Across the region, the lowest number of respondents with at least one gender bias was in Slovenia (59%), followed somewhat surprisingly by Hungary — one of the leading “illiberal democracies” in the region (66%) — and Estonia (76%).
Among the statements respondents were asked to evaluate were “Men make better political leaders than women do”, “University is more important for a man than for a woman”, “Men should have more right to a job than women” and proxy questions for intimate partner violence and reproductive rights.
Worldwide, about 50% of men and women interviewed across 75 countries said they think men make better political leaders than women, while more than 40% felt that men made better business executives. Almost 30% of people agreed it is justifiable for a man to beat his partner.
There was a clear divide between the countries of Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe on the one hand, and those of Central Asia and the Caucasus on the other. Gender bias was strongest in Azerbaijan, where over 99% of respondents held at least one bias, and over 96% in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
When looking at the types of bias held in the region, in eight of the 18 countries the strongest bias was political.
The strongest bias revealed by respondents to the UNDP survey in the CEE/CIS region was political. Source: UNDP
Despite this, there are a number of female heads of state and government in the region, among them Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova and Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, meaning women are better represented at the top levels of government in the region than they are on a global level.
The other area where high levels of gender bias were found was in physical integrity, where the highest level of bias was found in seven of the countries from the region.
In only two countries — Armenia and Azerbaijan — the highest level of bias was in the economic sphere, and in no country was the highest level of bias in education.
Another finding from the UNDP was that there are signs of backsliding on gender bias recently. The index shows that the proportion of people with moderate and intense biases against gender equality grew over the last few years in 15 countries out of 31.
Time comparison data was only provided for a few of the CEE/CIS countries, but among them, there the proportion of people with at least one gender bias has risen in Georgia, Romania and Russia, while falling in Poland, Slovenia and Ukraine.
Source: UNDP
This fits with the broader trend towards a tailing off in progress towards gender equality over the last 25 years. The UNDP reports continued strong progress towards gender equity in health and education, but “gains in other dimensions of women’s empowerment have been smaller, and progress towards gender equality is slowing … unless the active barriers posed by biased beliefs and practices that sustain persistent gender inequalities are addressed, progress towards equality will be far harder in the foreseeable future.”
In addition, while gender equality is growing at lower levels for example of education, workforce participation and political activity, at the higher level there has been far less progress.
For example, women and men vote in elections at similar rates, but when it comes to national parliaments women “appear severely underrepresented” and for heads of state and government the gender gap is almost 90%.
Similarly, economic participation also shows a gradient, with women overrepresented at basic levels of employment, while this is reversed at higher positions. Women represent only 21% of the world’s employers and 12% of the top billionaires.
“The Human Development Report’s Gender Inequality Index (GII) — a measure of women’s empowerment in health, education and economic status — shows that overall progress in gender inequality has been slowing in recent years … based on current trends, it would take 257 years to close the gender gap in economic opportunity,” according to the UNDP.
And this has huge economic implications. A 2018 World Bank study puts the potential losses in wealth resulting from gender inequality globally at $160.2 trillion — the figure is based on a calculation by World Bank economists that women’s human capital could increase from $283.6 trillion to $453.2 trillion with gender equality.
Register here to continue reading this article and 5 more for free or purchase 12 months full website access including the bne Magazine for just $250/year.
Register to read the bne monthly magazine for free:
Already registered
Password could contain only a-z0-9\+*?[^]$(){}=!<>|:-_ characters and have 8-20 symbols length.
Please complete your registration by confirming your email address.
A confirmation email has been sent to the email address you provided.
Forgotten password?
Email field can't be empty.
No user with this email address.
Access recovery request has expired, or you are using the wrong recovery token. Please, try again.
Access recover request has expired. Please, try again.
To continue viewing our content you need to complete the registration process.
Please look for an email that was sent to with the subject line "Confirmation bne IntelliNews access". This email will have instructions on how to complete registration process. Please check in your "Junk" folder in case this communication was misdirected in your email system.
If you have any questions please contact us at sales@intellinews.com
Sorry, but you have used all your free articles fro this month for bne IntelliNews. Subscribe to continue reading for only $119 per year.
Your subscription includes:
For the meantime we are also offering a free subscription to bne's digital weekly newspaper to subscribers to the online package.
Click here for more subscription options, including to the print version of our flagship monthly magazine:
More subscription options
Take a trial to our premium daily news service aimed at professional investors that covers the 30 countries of emerging Europe:
Get IntelliNews PRO
For any other enquiries about our products or corporate discounts please contact us at sales@intellinews.com
If you no longer wish to receive our emails, unsubscribe here.
Magazine annual electronic subscription
Magazine annual print subscription
Website & Archive annual subscription
Combined package: web access & magazine print annual subscription