male-owned firms have a woman as a top manager (BEEPS 2009). This fact suggests that women may be facing a less favorable environment for professional growth in male-owned firms (due to lack of support for their career aspirations, pervasiveness of stereotypes, discriminatory practices, etc) or it may be indicative of the importance of role-models from whom other female employees can learn and whose example can provide reassurance that women’s career ambitions are achievable, thus pushing more women to break the boundaries.

**Table 5. Structure of employed men and women by occupation, %**

**<u>(population age 15 and above)</u>**

|Occupation|Male|Female|Total|
|---|---|---|---|
|Legislators, senior officials and managers|6.3|4.6|5.6|
|Professionals|8.8|15.1|11.5|
|Technicians and associate professionals|10.5|18.9|14.1|
|Clerks|4.8|7.7|6|
|Service and sales workers|9.5|17.4|12.9|
|Skilled agricultural and fishery workers|21.7|19.9|20.9|
|Craft and related trades workers|19.1|4.5|12.8|
|Plant and machine operators and assemblers|11.4|1.8|7.3|
|Elementary occupations|7.4|10.1|8.6|
|Military officers|0.6||0.3|
|Total|100|100|100|

Source: Serbia LFS 2009 Women are more likely to have supervisory responsibilities in public institutions than in private companies: 51.3% of women employed in state-owned organizations, 46.4% in private institutions and 2.3% in organizations of other types of ownership supervise the work of at least one employee excluding apprentices. There are no differences in the share of men in supervisory positions between public and private organizations (LFS 2009). These figures suggest that stereotypical perceptions about men’s and women’s roles are more prevalent in the private sector and that the private sector, particularly small domestic companies, may be lacking clear and objective criteria for staff evaluation and promotion.

Focus group discussions conducted by UNDP among women employed in the private and public sectors revealed that women face two major problems in building their careers. First, employees of private enterprises report that there is a social bias towards women in senior positions, so that even if a company’s board of directors is ready to promote a woman to a managerial position, such decision is often met by a resistance of male colleagues and in case a woman is granted a management role, she may face lack of collaboration in her daily work from the male employees of the company. Second, increased professional responsibilities are not necessarily followed by a redistribution of household roles and women commonly mention the need to take care of the family as an obstacle to professional growth and career advancement (Babovic, Marija.2008).

# **2.3 Women in Politics**

Political life in Serbia is dominated by men that hold the most influential government positions and outnumber women by almost four to one in parliament (Figures 7 and 8). Over 80% of all ministerial positions are occupied by men, including those of the prime-minister and deputy prime-ministers. This is higher than the average for EU-15 countries, where men represent 71% of political executives<sup>9</sup> . While the

> 9 European Commission. 2010. _More women in senior positions- Key to economic stability and growth_ , Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union

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