Equalpower September 2018 5 issue English Izida Vita Institute

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EQUALPOWER • 2018 / ISSUE 5 •

eMagazine for equality and diversity MACEDONIA, SLOVENIA, EUROPE


EQUALPOWER CHIEF-EDITOR EXECUTIVE EDITOR

mag. Natalie C. Postružnik Dejan Andonov

EDITOR

Nina Klančnik, Martina Špiljak

EDITOR

Danaja Postružnik

DESIGN

Gorazd Postružnik

eMagazin is part of the activities and tools, conducted within the project Equal Power to the Women by Izida Vita, Slovenia in cooperation with Institute of Communication Studies, Macedonia en.izidavita.si, gorazd@izidavita.si Cover photo: izida Vita, training program in Macedonia, Oct 2nd and 3rd Project Equal Power to the Women is partially financed by the Ministry of foreign affairs of Republic of Slovenia Disclaimer: The content of the eMagazine represents the opinions of the authors and is not the official position of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia


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PERSONAL VIEW: GEORGIEVA AND BILBEAU: THE HIGH PRICE OF GENDER INEQUALITY

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WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT EUROPE (WIDE)

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WORLDWIDE FACTS ON GENDER INEQUALITY

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SUCCESS STORY:

Georgieva-Bibeau

IRENA JAKIMOVSKA: ENJOY THE CHANGE OF SOCIAL NORMS

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INFOGRAPHICS ON GENDER EQUALITY

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INVITATION:

Irena Jakimovska

2-DAY-WORKSHOP TRAINING ON BALANCED LEADERSHIP FOR YOUTH AND NGO


THE HIGH PRICE OF GENDER INEQUALITY NAL O S PER VIEW

Kristalina Georgieva and Marie-Claude Bibeau

Kristalina Georgieva is CEO of the World Bank. Marie-Claude Bibeau is Canada’s Minister of International Development and La Francophonie. Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018. www.project-syndicate.org

There is no doubt that ensuring that women and girls enjoy the same rights and opportunities as men and boys is the right thing to do from a moral and ethical standpoint. But it also makes economic sense – $160 trillion worth, to be precise.

ENT EMPOWERM MUST OCCUR TA THROUGHOU FROM E, WOMAN’S LIF OD O H EARLY CHILD ND THE TO SCHOOL A OF INACQUISITION SKILLS. DEMAND JOB

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A new report released by the World Bank Group, with support from the Canadian government, finds that if women had the same lifetime earnings as men, global wealth would increase by $23,620 per person, on average, in the 141 countries studied, for a total of $160 trillion. That is a lot of money that could be put toward, say, reducing inequality, expanding the ranks of the middle class, and mitigating the factors that drive social and political instability. Despite this clear opportunity, women still only account for 38% of their countries’ human capital wealth, defined as the value of the future earnings of adult citizens. In poor and lower-middle-income countries,

women account for just one-third of such wealth – or even less. In nearly every country, women and girls face systemic barriers that bar them from full and equal participation in the workforce and the formal economy more broadly. While the specific challenges confronting women vary, the fundamental imperative is the same everywhere: national governments and international actors must put the needs and priorities of women and girls at the center of everything they do. As the current head of the G7, Canada has committed to ensuring that gender equality and women’s empowerment are integrated into all of the body’s themes, activities, and initiatives. This approach echoes Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy, launched last year on the premise that ensuring equal rights and economic opportunities for women and girls is the best way to eradicate poverty.


Photo: Cover of the report, World Bank 2018

Reflecting this commitment, participants at the May 31-June 2 meeting of G7 finance and development ministers in Whistler, British Columbia, discussed women’s economic empowerment, including unlocking the potential of adolescent girls. Last week in Charlevoix, Québec, G7 leaders affirmed this focus. To gain access to opportunities and to the resources needed to succeed in the workforce, empowerment must occur throughout a woman’s life, from early childhood to school and the acquisition of in-demand job skills. If women are to participate equally in the labor force, we first need to ensure that they have the right tools. That means guaranteeing that all women and girls have access to health care and information, proper nutrition, and safe and effective learning environments at all levels. It also means upholding sexual and reproductive rights and combating sexual and gender-based violence, including harmful practices like child, early, or forced marriage. But that is not enough to improve women’s employment opportunities and earnings. We must also take collective action to reduce the amount of time women spend in unpaid work; to ensure they have access to and control over productive assets like land, credit, insurance, and savings; and to address the restrictive social norms that relegate women to lower-paid or informal work.

Policies to support women’s entrepreneurship would also have farreaching benefits. One initiative that is already advancing this goal is the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), a collaborative partnership housed at the World Bank and supported by 14 governments. We-Fi seeks to unlock billions of dollars in financing for women-owned or women-led businesses in developing countries.

eliminate those costs and change the fate of entire countries.

The huge costs of depriving women and girls of rights and opportunities are borne not only by women and girls themselves, but also by their families, communities, and the entire economy.

Only by unleashing the full potential of all people to participate fully in the economy can we strengthen growth, eliminate poverty, and respond effectively to mounting global challenges, from conflict to climate change.

By investing in women and girls and ending gender inequality, we can

Moreover, by considering economic empowerment in terms of gender, we may better understand how intersecting issues like ethnicity, age, disability, or language also create barriers to full and equal economic participation. Dismantling these barriers would bring even more farreaching benefits.

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E X P L O R E

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B A R C E L O N A

E D I T I O N

WIDE – Globalising Gender Equality and Social Justice WIDE – Globalising Gender Equality and Social Justice is a European feminist network of women´s organisations, development NGOs, gender specialists and women´s rights advocates. WIDE monitors and influences international economic and development policy and practice from a feminist perspective. WIDE´s work is grounded on women´s rights as the basis for the development of a more just and democratic world order and the search for alternative approaches to the economic mainstream. WIDE enables members and partners to articulate alternatives to the negative impacts of globalisation, and makes feminist alternatives visible. Through the dissemination of research and analysis, WIDE promotes gender equality and social justice. Over the 25 years of existence, WIDE is now uniquely equipped to link conceptual work with networking and lobbying on the one hand and direct capacity building on the other. WIDE is also an independent ‘outside’ lobbyist for gender issues in the large scale policy processes, working in close collaboration with the European Commission, the European Parliament and monitoring other international institutions (UN, WTO). With its strong membership and representation in Europe, as well as with its affiliation to the worldwide feminist networks and social movements, the WIDE Network has become an important actor in the field of gender, trade and development. WIDE’s main three pillars of activities are: lobbying, advocacy and awareness raising; networking; capacity building. More on WIDE: https://wideplus.org/ EQUALPOWER

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E X P L O R E

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B A R C E L O N A

E D I T I O N

Worldwide facts about gender inequality - 60% of the world's chronically hungry are women and girls. - Two-thirds of all children denied school are girls, and 75 per cent of the world’s 876 million illiterate adults are women. - Women hold only 21 per cent of the world’s parliamentary seats, and only 8 percent of the world’s cabinet ministers are women. - Only 46 countries have met the UN target of 30 percent female decision-makers. - One in three women around the world are likely to be victims of gender-based violence in their lifetime.

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Извор: Forbes

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ENJOY THE CHANGE OF SOCIAL NORMS IRENA OWNER

OF

JAKIMOVSKA ‘COMFY

ANGEL’

The company exports products from Macedonia, mostly for the British market and for other European Union countries. When she first started out with the business, she did not have a mentor, nor did she have financial support from the country or from an incubator. Jakimovska learned from the expertise and the technology of her partner and buyer of the products from Great Britain, with whom she started cooperating after an accidental conversation. Later on, however, in the process of developing the company, she was led by her and her team’s intuition. In her words - she made the hard decisions with belief in the best intentions regarding the existence of the company.

‘TOGETHER WE ARE BUILDING A COMPANY THAT WILL OUTLIVE US’ IS THE MOTTO OF IRENA JAKIMOVSKA, OWNER AND MANAGER OF ‘COMFY ANGEL’ – A COMPANY SPECIALIZED IN MANUFACTURING TEXTILE FOR HOUSEHOLDS.

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Pragmatic and honest are the characteristics that Jakimovska uses to describe herself, and when it comes to business principles she abides by in her work, she said: ‘Do not do unto others what you do not wish done unto you. You are not just building a company, it is also an organization that first and foremost is responsible for its employees, partners, customers, public institutions and society’.

ESS C C SU RY O T S

Approximately 900 people work for ‘Comfy Angel’. Jakimovska believes that the companies that invest in developing their resources, are aware of the great importance of motivated staff for the success of the company. In her company, she combines financial benefits for the staff with providing better work conditions and perks. She said that she has keeps open communication at all levels of the company, providing professional development training for the staff, respecting their creativity and ideas, and organizing socializing events. ‘It is often believed that if you raise the salary of an employee and if you offer a bonus with a defined target, you have done all that is expected of you. However, experience speaks otherwise. Financial rewards can be a motivating factor, though not always motivating in the long-run.


here is a whole other series of motivational factor that are not based on remuneration, and which provide strong loyalty and a sense of belonging in the organization.’ Jakimovska said. To her, leadership is a process of growing and upgrading on a daily basis, so that you become more conscious and conscientious initially of yourself, and then of others around you. Regarding her position as manager, she said that it is no different than working as a banker, nurse or doctor, it is simply an obligation that you must fulfil. ‘To be successful on the market, you must provide continuous product quality and high-quality services for the customers, supplemented with honesty and joint cooperation’, Jakimovska said regarding the existence of ‘Comfy Angel’ on the European market, despite its stiff competition. She admits that in her business contacts and functions she does not come across many women who are company owners or are at top management positions.

G TO RE WILLIN F A U O Y O IF E A PART SACRIFIC THEN I E, U YOUR LIF THAT YO D N E M M OY RECO AND ENJ E V A R B BE ENTS OF L M O M E H T A G SOCIET CHANGIN NORMS, Author: Mirjana Mirčevska-Jovanović Foto: Liljana Grdzo Damovska

‘In ‘Comfy Angel’ it is absolutely no problem having a women in a management position. Women should be involved in the decision-making process, which is primarily due to the nature of women. Women know how to give, how to multitask and they keep perspective of costeffectiveness in their decisionmaking process’, Jakimovska believes. She said that at the beginning of her work, she was unable to strike balance between working and private life. Now, however, when the company system is fully set-up and everyone is responsible for their own obligations, she has the right, the opportunity and good fortune to devote herself to her private life.

‘Everything has its up-side and its down-side. It is a nice feeling to make a change in society, however if you are a professional you know that nothing happens without sacrifice. If you are willing to sacrifice a part of your life, then I recommend that you be brave and enjoy the moments of changing societal norms’, is the message Jakimovska sent out to all women who are starting out in their careers.


PHICS ON INFOGRA UALITY EQ GENDER VS. SLOVENIA NIA MACEDO

Author: Blanka Kroflič at Doba Faculty, lecturer Natalie C. Postružnik

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WORKSHOP - TRAINING ON BALANCED LEADERSHIP IN THE BUSINESS

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The trainer at the workshop: Natalie C. Postruznik, Institute Izida Vita, Slovenia

Natalie C. PostruĹžnik, M. A., 47, certified executive business coach, trainer and motivator, studied management, information technology, journalism, German language and literature. Natalie's experience includes internationalisation and cross border collaboration. She was an initiator for the "Family friendly business" certification among her cusomers, achieving awards for best employers and marketing campaings. Since 2010 she has devoted her professional time to developing employees' potentials and companies' performance in Slovenia. Her clients range from retail, energy, insurance to business associations and international cinsulting firms.

Do you want to better adapt to existing corporate practices? To identify your talent for doing business? Or to gain greater selfconfidence in entrepreneurship? Apply to the free training for young people "Balanced leadership in the business".

Where? Institute of Communication Studies (str. Jurij Gagarin, 17-1-1, Skopje) Who can apply?

On a two-day training upgrade your skills for career development or for a high(er) job position and network with people with same interests. At the training, we will discuss how to increase awareness and establish mechanisms for balanced participation of women and men in leading positions in the business sector.

Claudia de Castro Caldeirinha

- Students and young people up to 35 years old; - Representatives of NGOs; - Representatives of educational organizations (faculties, vocational schools, secondary schools, training centers, student organizations); Apply on prijava@iks.edu.mk.


AGENDA October 2nd, Tuesday 9:30-10:00 – Welcome and Introduction Dejan Andonov, Institute of Communication Studies 10:00-11:00 - My Path - Where I am, where I am going Natalie C. Postruznik, Izida Vita Slovenia 11:00-11:15 – Coffee Break Danica Licanin Blazevska

11:15-12:00 - Be the change you want to see. What are the attributes I need to achieve what I set? Natalie C. Postruznik, Izida Vita Slovenia 12:00-13:00 – Practical work and feedback 13:00-13:15 – Wrap Up Session

October 3rd, Wednesday 9:30-10:15 - Entrepreneurial Characteristics or Business Instincts: What do I need for successful career? Natalie C. Postruznik, Izida Vita Slovenia 10:15-11:00 – Practical work and discussion 11:00-11:15 – Coffee Break 11:15-12:00 - My Success Story: Start-up support and mentoring schemes for newcomers Guest speaker 12:00-12:45 - Benefits of Gender Equality in Business - good models and practices Natalie C. Postruznik, Izida Vita Slovenia Sonja Šmuc

12:45-13:15 – Wrap Up Session and Evaluation

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eMagazine for equality and diversity MACEDONIA, SLOVENIA, EUROPE


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