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"A week spent in Georgia gathering data on gender and development produced some interesting findings and ideas to be utilized for development cooperation purposes. Without a doubt, this Caucasian country belongs to one of the most amazing places I have visited, with its unique culture, a proud nation, hospitality, and breathtaking sceneries. Yet it is also a country facing many obstacles due to a complicated political, economic and social transformation and geopolitical crisis. When it comes to social transformation and particularly gender equality as a prerequisite to development, Georgia can be portrayed as a traditional society with some deeply embedded patriarchal values. Yet, traditions are not static and one can notice Georgia is undergoing a social change. While de jure gender equality framework is being strengthened, progress towards de facto gender equality situation remains a great challenge especially in the rural areas.

Gender inequalities can be found in all areas of life from politics, economy, social sphere, to the recently experienced armed conflict. Development aid flowing to the country from the EU or the UN has had a considerable gender component. International donors such as UNIFEM or Swedish SIDA have strongly supported not only women’s rights but also gender concerns arisen from the recent conflict. According to a Georgian gender expert, a UNIFEM project focused on the drafting of the national action plan on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security, shall be launched this year. Furthermore the country has made a significant progress towards gender equality – it has recently passed the Gender Equality Law and other measures have been put in place such as the national action plan for gender equality. Yet, there is a tremendous gap between the policies and their implementation into practice in Georgia.

“One of the main problems is that women are absent from public life,” says gender expert from Tbilisi, adding that “this deficit cannot be solved only through systematic changes but a change of traditions is needed.” She further pointed at some gender inequalities to be dealt with by policy makers such as the lack of sex-disaggregated data or gender blindness of the media. Another feminist activist from Tbilisi says that “one of the key problems is the lack of continuous funding for women’s movements, especially in the rural areas which suffer from poverty and are barely touched by democracy.” She adds that “there is a lack of small scale businesses in the rural areas which would allow for development of a strong middle class.” Her organization has been involved in building up women’s movements in a form of village centers for women’s social responsibility, offering trainings on various issues such as domestic violence or migration.

Empowerment of rural women is viewed as an important issue by a high ranking official from the Ministry of Agricultural of Georgia’s Autonomous Republic of Adjara. She herself represents the progressive generation of Georgians; she previously worked for an international organization and studied in the EU. “What is needed is a strong donor support for empowerment of local communities including specifically rural women,” she explains. Her ideas about women’s empowerment are similar to those of the gender expert from Tbilisi – it is important to focus on social issues such as women’s rights and at the same time on economic activities such as practical training about farming, as one can not be done without the other.

 
Traveling through Georgia one can clearly see the differences between a westernized capital Tbilisi and a more traditionalistic countryside with a stronger role of the Orthodox Church. When it comes to gender roles, one of the most traditionalistic regions is Guria. As mentioned by a woman from Guria’s town Ozurgeti, “there is an embedded tradition of men respecting women whether at the table or on the streets”. I have learned that at the Georgian table men propose wine toasts to women, motherhood, peace, and other issues. The toasts are proposed by a Thamada, a person sitting at the head of the table. Only men can play the role of a Thamada. “The reason is that wine is made by men therefore men have the priority to be first,” says one Thamada. But women do desire to be Thamada as well. As said by a woman from Ozurgeti, “We are not trying to change this tradition but if there was an opportunity, yes, I would like to be Thamada.” As for this tradition of men respecting women, gender expert from Tbilisi is critical, explaining that “a woman cult was created but at the end, women gain nothing.”

 
Georgia is a country with many potentials and women’s full and equal participation on development would unquestionably be a huge asset to its overall development. Nevertheless efforts aimed at greater gender equality must include also men; and there seem to be a support to this idea among them. As explained by a male journalist from Batumi: ”Women must recognize that men want to support their active involvement in public life.” Surprisingly, Georgian men were rather open and interested in talking about gender issues during my short visit. That gives a hope that the tradition of respecting women might transform into a tradition of respecting women as equal. International donors including the new EU Members States and local administration can play a significant role in contributing to the de facto gender equality in Georgia, whether by supporting women’s empowerment projects or taking into account gender aspect in all development projects. "

Although I was aware that transition period that all politicians and economists around Eastern and South-Easter Europe applauded so loudly was not friendly or beneficial to many people, I was not aware that women were main actors in its side effects. According to Svenka Savić, a professor I met at the Faculty of Arts in Novi Sad, claims that “media often reports about the number of people who have just been fired, but they rarely mention that they are mainly women.”

During our trip to Serbia and Macedonia we met many of these women – Ljubinka from Rosinovo, Jadranka from Berovo, Nena from Bor etc – who have lost their jobs when they were in their 40s or 50s and have never been able to find another formal occupation. Analysts claim that unemployment in Serbia is not a one-day-disease but a chronic problem – more than 42 % of the people look for a job for more than 3 years.

Nevertheless, we often here about statistics and negative numbers but we rarely get the chance to look behind that. Women of ex-Yugoslavia are often portrayed as victims and powerless subjects in need of help. While in a way they are victims, lost in once so hoped successful transition to the market economy, they are much more than that. For me, they are also heroines. They found their own way to succeed in not only making life for themselves but also establishing connections and collaborations with other women in similar situation all around the world. Working from their home – that is why they are called home-based workers, a completely new concept for me - they are aware that only collaboration with others can bring success to their lives and lives to the people around them. Solidarity is something that they live, something that many of us might still need to learn. "

Trip to Serbia and Macedonia has been very insightful for me in many ways. On the one hand it has given me insight into the lives of women who have been faced with very difficult socio-economic situations. This has given me faces behind the numbers that the economists, media, politicians and also development NGOs often promote. Furthermore, I was not aware of the importance of the informal economy, even more of the home based work, for the survival of these women. It was also for the first time I heard that home based workers are actually a worldwide movement. On the other hand, the trip challenged me with my own stereotypes and victimization of the people living in difficult economic situation. These not only goes for the women of Serbia and Macedonia but for many we see as poor and deprived – that is our tendency to see them merely as victims and not as people with their own abilities, skills, hopes and energy to face the harsh reality we often contribute to.

Barbara Vodopivec

 

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Between 15th and 21st of February 2010, as part of the data gathering tour implemented under the project “Through Their Eyes, Through Ours” I had an opportunity to meet women from Zurnovtzi, Rusininovo and Shtip in Macedonia, as well as Bor and Belgrade in Serbia working in garment industry as well those involved in home based work.

Women in the Serbia and Macedonia, experience number of development problems. All the conversations and interviews had shown that as a rule, ordinary women in the Balkan region live in difficult social conditions and struggle to survive.
In line with traditional and stereotypical division of labour women have to do the entire housework and in addition work outside home to earn money. In the regions of Macedonia and Serbia that I visited many women work in the garment factories where they receive the minimum national salary or even below it. A very large percent of women do home based work. They knit and prepare traditional dishes. Everything they produce is hand-made and unique: cookies, traditional food, blouses, hats, covers, etc . They attend fairs and exhibitions where they try to sell their products. Despite the fact that their prices are very low and frequently do not cover the materials and the time needed for its production, the demand for their products is low. This is caused by the fact that on the local marked hand crafts are not seen as something worth buying since any woman can make it! The fact that the women produce goods that are really unique, and are very expensive on the European markets does not result in them being able to cover their living expenses from their craft work. Some women try to earn extra money by renting rooms to tourists. The women told me that their husbands earn money in “grey” (informal) work.
The women we visited in Belgrade, Serbia told me that during the hard period of the war in 1999, their situation was even more difficult - they did not have money at all. To survive they used an old wood ovens to cook food for sale, because there was no electricity in the city.

I have learnt also from the women in Belgrade that unemployed women in Serbia rarely register themselves in the national register for unemployed because if they do so, they receive a very small amount of money just for some months and they have to take-up any job offered by the labor office even if it does not fit their qualification or skills. The usual practice is that the offered places were badly paid and with bad labor conditions.

Sonia from Zurnovtzi told me that women over 50 suffered double discrimination. The owners of the factories often do not want to employ them because of their age and as a result, they cannot save enough for a pension. This putted them in a very difficult situation where they not old enough for retiring and not young enough for being employed.

In 21 February, 2010 I visited a place in Shtip where all the women catch buses to go back home after work in the garment factories, which produce goods mainly for Germany, Belgium, UK, Italy and the Netherlands. The women told me that they received the minimal national salary. The local activist Katerina, told me that the women started working at 8 am and they finished at 3 p.m. We were at the place at 3 p.m. There were more that 9 buses that were crowded with women from the factories. Katerina also informed us that when there was an urgent order, women worked on Saturdays and Sundays but were not paid for this extra work. Sometimes women went back at their homes by the buses at 3 p.m. and then at 6 p.m. they came to work again. That work continued until approximately 9 - 10 p.m. They were not paid for this either. The factories are not unionized.