Shock and Awe

To the left is a picture of Nikolai Gruevski, the PM of Macedonia. More on him later.

I am reading the Macedonian Government's National Action Plan for Employment 2006-2008 and am absolutely appalled. There is a section called "Promote a lifecycle approach to work" followed by five goals. Here are two of the goals:

1. resolute action to increase female participation and reduce gender gaps in employment, unemployment and pay,
2. better reconciliation of work and private life and the provision of accessible and affordable childcare facilities and care for other dependents.

Sounds promising, right? Ha ha ha ha, how naive I was. My eyes lit up reading this only to be utterly crushed when I read the planned programs and measures. It is estimated that in 2005, the female employment rate was 30.1% (male: 45.5%). Upon stating this information, the paper goes on to recognize that in the Albanian, Roma and Turkish communities, female employment rate is even lower. The remedy: the Roma, Albanians and Turkish communities assumed embracing of the educational system eventually downsizing the problem. Um, what?! This is not a program or action. Let's not even get into how this "solution" is worded. The policy then goes on to categorically deny the existence of a wage gap. "There is no wage difference between men and women for the same jobs." How did Macedonia achieve this feat? What are we in the US and the EU doing wrong? I am reminded of Nixon's declaration of victory in regards to the Vietnam War. Just declare victory and go home! Or maybe it is simply job segmentation: no women mangers, no wage gap. By the way, there is no mention of the the job segmentation in society in the piece of policy. So, now, let's get into the proposed activities to increase women's employment, shall we?

1. Change the law on employment and unemployment insurance to make sure women are included. Focus on women in mediation services provided by the Employment Insurance Agency.
2. Women's employment rate will positively influence child care and single parents' programs.

Am I missing something? What about training programs for women? Encouraging women entrepreneurship? How is #2 an action?

Let's move on to affordable and accessible childcare and dependent care. There is absolutely NO mention of dependent care that is not related to children. The policy goes on to note that there are a low number of children enrolled in kindergartens (childcare for children age 3 and up before they are school aged, not kindergarten the way we think about it in the US). The author(s) then go on to note this low enrollment in kindergartens is directly related to the low rate of women's employment. Brilliant. Unemployed women = no financial means to enroll children in kindergarten and lack of need to enroll the children. The conclusion: "Thus, it could be concluded that access to childcare facilities is not the key factor for better reconciliation between work and private life." The outrage! Who wrote this? I almost cried in despair, suddenly realizing what I am up against to develop the women's economic rights program here at UNIFEM. I knew there were strong gender stereotypes in this country, but until I read this, it seemed more of an idea, not a reality. Here's my slap in the face.

Oh, and one more thing. There is a (proposed?) new government incentive program to get Macedonians to have more than 2 children. Everyone that I know that is of the Macedonian ethnic community has 2 children. No more, no less. So, in all of his wisdom, Big Nikki Gruevski, the PM, has devised an incentive for Macedonians to have 4 children: more money in retirement. Maybe this is also part of a new women's employment program. Have babies, drop out of the work force. Then, we don't have to even count you as unemployed. The thing is, if Macedonia is anything like the US, financial incentives or penalties doled out by the government rarely influence reproductive decisions in a statistically significant way. That being said, I am still angry angry angry.

PS I am not sure if this 4 child policy includes other ethnic communities or simply the ethnic Macedonian community. I am also not sure if the incentive program has passed. Given that PM Gruevski's party has a majority, I would be surprised if it somehow failed in the parliament. If I hear more, I will update.