According to Statista, Serbia is currently in 21st place in terms of the proportion of women in leading positions, better than Germany but far behind the Nordic countries. Behind these differences are many similar stories about what hinders women’s progress. We spoke with presidents of the mixed chambers of commerce in Serbia, who shared their experiences.
As early as 2019, research by IBM showed that improving the position of women in business is not a priority for companies around the world, and that the gender gap in leadership is likely to last until 2073 without suitable initiatives at corporate level. Despite this gloomy prognosis, the last 10 years have seen an increasing gender balance for women in the field of economic decision-making, but from a low basis. Unfortunately, even this modest improvement was not accompanied by equally positive changes in the gender pay gap. We took the opportunity to ask women who hold important positions in society and the business community why the gender gap is so difficult to bridge.