On 7 December 2016, a regional conference "Reconciling Family and Work Responsibilities: Policies, Challenges and Practice" was held at the House of Europe in Zagreb as part of the project "Women in the Labor Market - Gender Impact Assessment". The project is implemented by the BaBe association in partnership with the Faculty of Political Science, the associations VIMIO and Legalina, and the City of Zagreb, and is co-financed by the European Union and the Office for Cooperation with NGOs of the Government of the Republic of Croatia.
The conference brought together representatives of ministries, embassies, unions, faculties, political parties, institutions and civil society, and students, and welcoming speeches were given by Sanja Sarnavka, president of BaBa, Romana Galic, Deputy Head of the City Office for Social Protection and Persons with Disabilities, and Nada Murganic, Minister of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy.
Executive Project Manager Tihana Bertek briefly presented the project, research and publication and announced the premiere of a documentary film created in collaboration with Student Television. The first speaker was Mario Munta from the Faculty of Political Sciences, who spoke about precarious flexibility, i.e. predictors of negative spillover from business to private life in the Republic of Croatia. The data used in this analysis are an integral part of the research conducted in 2015 within the framework of the project.
The conference was divided into three panels. They spoke at the first panel, dedicated to the role of institutional mechanisms for gender equality Hana Grgic from the Office of the Gender Equality Ombudsman, Lejla Hodovic and Ana Vukovic from the Gender Center of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Sonja Robnik from the Sector for Equal Opportunities at the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.
Grgić presented the project "Towards real equality of men and women: harmonizing professional and family life" and the use of theatre as a tool for breaking gender stereotypes, and also mentioned MAMFORCE, a certificate for gender equality in public institutions, state bodies and companies. Hodović and Vuković spoke about the role of the Gender Centre, the Gender Action Plan of BiH and the financial mechanism for its implementation (FIGAP), and the importance of gender budgeting. The legislative framework in Slovenia was the topic of Sonja Robnik's presentation, as well as citizens' views on harmonizing obligations and the Ministry of Labour as an employer (an example of good practice). At the very end, Robnik showed the attendees a video clip created as part of the campaign "Let's balance power relations between the sexes."
The presenters on the second panel were: Ivana Dobrotic from the Social Work Study Center at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, Nada Stropnik from the Ljubljana Institute for Economic Research, and Jelena Ćeriman from the Belgrade Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, and the moderator was Sinisa Zrinscak from the Faculty of Law in Zagreb.
Dobrotić is also one of the authors of the publication "Woman, Mother, Worker: Reconciling Family Responsibilities and Paid Work in Croatia" created within the project, which participants could take with them at the conference along with two handbooks (one dedicated to assessing the impact of gender, and the other to monitoring public policies). In her presentation, Dobrotić focused on the challenges related to policies for reconciling family and work responsibilities, emphasizing the importance of long-term planning and monitoring the effects of individual measures, as well as being based on the real needs of parents and empirical evidence. Stropnik spoke about the reconciliation of family and work responsibilities in Slovenia and the correlation with fertility and presented some measures and good practices in Slovenia, including the "Family-Friendly Company" certificate. Ćeriman presented the legislative framework in Serbia, focusing in particular on the division of household chores, the perception of gender roles, and the attitudes of primary and secondary school students in Serbia.
The third panel brought together representatives of civil society organizations. Branka Mrzic Jagatic from Roda spoke about the specific experiences of pregnant women and mothers in the labor market on the one hand, and on the other hand, about equal parenting and the Budi tata project, which aims to increase the number of fathers who use maternity leave, but also more active participation of fathers in family life. Jelena Sapic from the Belgrade Center for Public Policy Research presented research on the happiness of families with children in Serbia, emphasizing the importance of public policies related to social protection, education, employment, healthcare and other policies that can contribute to creating a supportive environment for families with children. Diana Sehic and Arijana Catovic from the Sarajevo association Prava za sve presented the situation in BiH and warned of various problems in the field of harmonizing business and family obligations, especially those concerning jurisdiction, since the current solutions do not ensure the consistent implementation of the principle of equality before the law.
The presentations at the conference were rich in content and of high quality, the discussion was stimulating, and the audience participants actively participated by commenting and pointing out problems, and especially the lack of political will. The exchange of experiences with other countries in the region and the comparison of legislation and practice proved to be particularly useful and interesting, and a great value of the conference was the establishment of contacts among experts, which is the basis for future cooperation.
