Women’s quotas are necessary because at the current pace we will not achieve full equality for decades

Gordana Deranja, the first female president of the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP), has been elected for the second time this year among the ten most powerful businesswomen in Croatia according to the selection of the weekly Lider. In addition to leading HUP, Deranja is the CEO of the Pula shipyard Tehnomont and one of the few women in the shipbuilding industry, especially in a leadership position.

For Lider, she speaks about how she sees the position of women in the business world and what she thinks about the introduction of mandatory women’s quotas for management boards and supervisory boards.

– Quotas are a mechanism aimed at achieving greater, or rather more equal representation of women in managerial positions. Although progress is being made and the representation of women in top positions is increasing, the process is very slow, and at the current pace of change, we will not achieve full equality for decades. Under ideal circumstances, the only criterion for advancement and appointment to any top position should be the quality, expertise, and capability of the candidate.

Women want to be promoted because they deserve it just as much as their male colleagues, and not just to formally meet a certain quota. However, the circumstances are far from ideal, so quotas are a mechanism that some countries are trying to use to accelerate the pace of change, emphasizes Deranja.

In countries where quotas have already been introduced, such as France, Denmark, or Germany, progress is visible, but they do not fully solve the problem. She believes that quotas alone are not sufficient, and that the solution should be sought in dialogue and cooperation between the business, government, and civil sectors, and that gender equality can only be achieved with broad social consensus and support for women, not only in the workplace but in all other segments of life, especially in childcare and family care. She also believes that quotas are not a solution if they are not accompanied by a genuine willingness to change, as evidenced by the recent situation with parliamentary elections. – Although the law prescribes a women’s quota, political parties have largely ignored it, so with the new assembly, we have taken another step back in terms of equal representation of women in the Parliament, says Deranja, adding that much can certainly be done through public awareness and education, as well as joint initiatives of the business, government, and civil sectors.

HUP, together with the Ombudsperson for Gender Equality, has conducted about ten workshops and training sessions on the topic of gender-balanced policies in companies. Namely, a lot can already be done during the recruitment of employees, and especially later in determining and developing talents. They recently launched an electronic database of businesswomen to show that there are enough women in Croatia who have proven through their work and training that they are capable of taking on the highest managerial positions at any time. So far, they have ten ambassadors on the list and several dozen applications in the database. The public call is open until the beginning of January 2016, after which the Committee will proceed with the selection process and establish the first list of businesswomen, which will be updated every six months.

– According to the feedback we receive from women, we have made a good initiative and we certainly will not stop with such activities. HUP is recognized at the EU level as an employers’ association that is active in the field of women’s rights, and this can only encourage us to continue working on this topic, says Deranja.

According to some data, women are well represented in middle management in Croatia, but they rarely reach the highest positions. Deranja believes there are several reasons for this situation.

One of them is the fact that the fertile age of women coincides with the years when they should give their best in terms of career. According to a study conducted in Croatia, 46 percent of women stated that they could not advance in their careers due to family obligations.

– That is a large number. The problem is not only the fact that women want to spend time with their children, which is normal in itself, but that the entire childcare system is not set up to facilitate women’s balancing of work and family obligations. For example, we have kindergartens that are often overcrowded, operate only until five o’clock, and do not work on weekends, while at the same time the nanny system has not functioned properly. Working in top positions brings longer working hours, obligations outside of working hours, and a lot of travel, so sometimes women themselves hesitate to take such positions, at least while their children are younger, says Deranja, emphasizing that the role of women in the business world will be difficult to change as long as society as a whole views family care as primarily a woman’s responsibility. Only when this, she adds, becomes equally an obligation for both parents and when women have adequate social support and concrete help in caring for children or elderly family members, will women be able to achieve equality with men in their professional careers.

– From the earliest childhood, certain stereotypes are created that follow us later in life, for example in films and other media images, where men are assigned roles of those who build a business career, while women take care of the family, emphasizes Deranja.

A thesis that often comes up is that women, on average, are less confident, greater perfectionists, and that they need to strive and work harder and longer than men for the same results in terms of salaries and positions. Deranja believes that women, on average, certainly have less confidence than men, meaning they will do only what they are one hundred percent sure they know, while men will much more easily accept a job they are not up to, but believe they will somehow manage. This trait is certainly a brake on women’s careers. She does not think that women’s and men’s priorities at work are different, but probably the way priorities are achieved is different. When it comes to the ‘exit’ in the form of starting their own companies, Deranja believes that this is certainly a great move for any woman who has entrepreneurship in her because this way she can plan her time and obligations herself, she will certainly not work less, but flexibility will allow her not to feel the pressure she otherwise has in the daily juggling between work and family obligations.

For her personal business experience, she says: “Perseverance, constant improvement, and taking responsibility have brought me to the position of CEO. It has not always been easy, but in the end, it always shows that knowledge pays off. I would not be able to balance my business and private life well if I did not have a family that approaches various situations as a team and where we mutually ‘cover’ each other in family obligations. I try to leave work at the office and dedicate quality time to my children and husband after working hours.”