UN MISSION SPOTLIGHTS KOSOVO’S GENDER GAP IN EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION

June 8, 2004 – (UN News) Kosovo suffers from a serious gender gap, with the United Nations mission’s first comprehensive survey of gender data in the province showing that women are severely under-represented in the workforce and girls’ attendance at secondary school is much lower than that of boys.

Women comprise just 30 per cent of the workforce, according to statistics released today from the Office of Gender Affairs of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK - http://www.unmikonline.org/). In rural areas they make up even less of the overall total – just 21 per cent.

Females are also disadvantaged in education. The figures indicate 91 per cent of girls attend primary school, while only 54 per cent go to secondary school.

UNMIK’s Office of Gender Affairs conducted the survey to provide Kosovo’s policy-makers with gender-disaggregated data to help them try to close the gender gap in the employment, education, health and social welfare fields.

In a statement, UNMIK said the province generally lacked much gender-specific data, citing the absence of any statistics about women’s average income or access to financial resources.

From: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10992&Cr=kosovo&Cr1=