Politics, men's room for women

A BIRN research shows that Kosovo political parties do not implement gender quotas in running party structures.

The LDK branches are not guided by women, while only two PDK branches are run by women. In the AAK, however, all branches are guided by men.

The PDK is among the only parties that have women leading party branches. Of the party's 38 branches, two are led by women.

The party, according to Secretary Basri Musmurati, has a woman vice president and two women's advisors. But the party is far away to achieve representation of 50 women with 50 in the governing structures. Of the 184 members of the party's Steering Council, 39 are women, at the helm of the 50 members of the leadership -- 13 are women, writes Kalxo.com.

In the LDK, none of the 38 party branches are run by women, while only 4 women are members of the 23-member chairmanship. At the next forum, the LDK General Council of 117 members are only 24 women.

In Vetevendosje Movement, no figures have been provided for the number of branches that are headed by women.

But, Nazlie Balaj, head of the Women's Committee, says Vetevendosje has entrusted women with the positions of second vice-chairman, committee co-ordinator for women, secretary-general and head of the Secretariat for the media and communication.

On the other hand, Ramush Haradinaj's Alliance also continues to be ruled by men.

The party's leadership is made up of 48 men and only 12 women, while the Steering Council has 24 women and 93 men. In its local extension in municipalities, the AAK has not entrusted any branch to be governed by women.

In the Democratic Party of Kosovo, Secretary Basri Musmurati says there is no need for gender quotas because of quality.

While in LDK, they think representation of women is sufficient.

Teuta Musa, secretary of the Women's Forum in the LDK, told BIRN that women in this party have their respective positions of merit. The election of candidates in the LDK is done on the basis of women's merits in the policy sphere. The Democratic League of Kosovo in its structure has the LDK Women's Forum, a very powerful mechanism, which there are thousands of women in all of Kosovo's branches in the facility. The selection of women to compete in the election campaign is made by women active in this mechanism, enabling them to compete with their plans for citizens”.

While the Social Democrat Party has not returned answers to its structure and the inclusion of women in the process.

Uneven Institutions

The inequality of women in numbers is also seen in their employment in public institutions.

The research shows that the country's presidency has 76 employees, of whom 54 are men and 22 women.

The data shows that women are less employed at the central administration level, where 6 thousand more men work. Between 28,000 and 557 employees, only 11 thousand and 14 women are employed.

The figures are uneven even at the local level, where of 43 thousand and 571 employed are only 19 247 women.