What did the debate held in EU Info Centre reveal about language and gender equality.
Average salary of a highly educated woman is RSD17,000 lower that the average salary of a highly educated man, while 42% of citizens consider women to be the most discriminated group of the society; this was said at the tonight’s debate in EU Info Centre and the message conveyed is: every thing denoted in male gender form, can also be denoted in female gender form, if needed, and this a matter of habit.
The “What is my gender-specific occupational title?” debate held in Youth Centre assessed that rights and freedoms are nevertheless being conquered and that partly it is up to women to do so, as well as that language being a part of identity is no coincidence.
Head of the EU Delegation Michael Davenport said that in EU Member States there are only 33% of women in leadership positions compared to 67% of men, and that only 16% of women are members of Boards of Directors of some of the largest companies.
Language as a way of thinking
I don’t know whether in certain way language is a barrier, but the way of thinking still is, and language reflects the way of thinking, Davenport said.
Regarding remarks such as “that is something EU wants to introduce” he said that language and its female gender forms are not a part of European standards.
Commissioner for Protection of Equality Nevena Petrušić underlined that gender equality is proclaimed by the Constitution and that Serbia today strives to genuine equality.
“But the existing resistance to appreciating gender, testifies the resistance to idea of equality; people don’t mind using the female forms of teacher, actor, or cleaner, but they mind using the female forms of dean, judge or a member of parliament… they say that these words already contain a different meaning”, she said.
According to her, human rights certainly have to do with the way people live and it’s about time that people in Serbia understand this.
A long battle
State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture Gordana Predić said that Serbian women were given the right to vote in 1946 while in Switzerland for examples this didn’t happen until 1974.
Since we like to compare ourselves to Europe, we can say that women in Europe do not earn the same amount of money as men; they constitute a quarter of the Parliament, so we can say that besides from women being on black lists regarding cervical cancer and regarding the violence committed against them, women in Serbia are comparable to EU women when it comes to making decisions, she said.
She pointed out that since the year 2000, one can notice a positive trend regarding highly educated women, and since 2007 there are more of them who obtain a University diploma: the only question is, how many of them do get a job.
Journalist Olja Bećković out spoke that she didn’t notice gender inequality in Serbia.
Journalism challenges this statement: women dominate journalism and take a lead in conversation, from Brankica Stanković and onwards. Unfortunately there is no such a strong male figure in Serbian journalism, said Bećković.
She said that she was raised so that the question “How to properly say something?” was answered “The proper way is whatever sounds right”.
Expressing the occupational titles of a psychologist or a judge in female form is scandalous, and if B92 introduced it as an obligation, I would ask to be excluded from it, said Bećković.
Language allows everything
Linguist Vlado Đukanović pointed out that language contains all the resources needed for expressing everything in both female and male gender form.
Language makes no barriers, people do, but without people there is no language, he said.
Always bare in mind that we cannot use language as an excuse and say “this is not possible”; you can express anything if you know how, and if there is a need to do so, he underlined.
Actress Mirjana Karanović assessed that societies are developed to an extent in which they are ready to face the challenges, and not to say “What in the world do these women want?” and assessed that in Serbia this an issue of both class affiliation and human rights.
Director of Belgrade Centre of Safety Policy Sonja Stojanović Gajić quoted that this NGO deals with army and police relations and that she came to a conclusion that men are faced with the same obstacles as women.
When we analysed whether a man or a woman is going to a peace mission or who will get a promotion, they said that women’ chances are slim, but we are also not so sure on which man would get a promotion because, in the end, political connections are crucial as well as how well you get along with the boss, hence managing human resources is disastrous and does damage to both men and women, she concluded.
