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Acknowledgements

ASC team wishes to thank all the persons who have contributed to finalizingthis report, all women and men participants in the focus groups and all localauthorities and NPO experts without whose comments and suggestions thisreport would not have been completed.

Additional thank you notes go to the local coordinators and experts Sonila Adili,Daniela Gjylameti, Marta Topciu, Raisa Bishaj, Mine Qypi, Diamanta Vito,Mimoza Volumi, Elsa Bezhani, Nevila Sota, Anila Karanxha, Shpresa Banja,Arta and Angjelina Marku, Fatbardha Alimetaj, and Yllka Ndreca.

We would also like to thank all the experts who have continuously providedvery useful comments and information especially Eglantina Gjermeni, Valbona

Jaupllari, Elvana Lula, Dhurata Shamia, Monika Kocaqi, Saemira Pino andLindita Cecja (Trifi).

Special thanks go to the UNIFEM Office in Albania and especially to ChristineArab, Ermira Lubani and Asya Varbanova for their continuous support andadvice.


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List of Acronyms and Abbreviations

ARHS Albanian Reproductive Health SurveyCARDS Communitarian Aide for reconstruction, development and

stabilizationCEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against WomenCSO Civil Society OrganizationDEO Directorate of Equal OpportunitiesEU European UnionFG Focus GroupGDP Gross Domestic ProductGEL Gender Equality LegislationILO International Labor OrganizationIMF International Monetary FundINSTAT Institute of StatisticsIPA Instrument for Pre-Accession AssistanceGADC Gender Alliance for Development CentreGOA Government of AlbaniaLFP Labour Force ParticipationLSMS Living Standards Measurement SurveyMDGs Millennium Development GoalsMICS Multiple Indicator Cluster SurveyMOES Ministry of Education and ScienceMOF Ministry of Finance

MOH Ministry of HealthMOLSAEO Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal OpportunitiesNE Ndihme Ekonomike (economic assistance)NES National Employment ServiceNPO Non for Profit OrganisationNSDI National Strategy for Development and IntegrationNSGE-DV National Strategy on Gender Equality and Domestic

ViolenceNSSED National Strategy for Socio-Economic DevelopmentSAA Stabilisation and Association AgreementSAP Stabilisation and Association ProcessSSS State Social Service

UNDP United Nations Development ProgrammeUNESCAP United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asiaand the Pacific

UNICEF United Nations Childrens FundUNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for WomenUNRISD United Nations Research Institute for Social DevelopmentUNFPA United Nations Population FundUSAID United States Agency for International DevelopmentWB World Bank


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Unpaid Care Work the invisible burden of women

Definitions ............................................................................................ 5Executive Summary .............................................................................. 8I) Introduction and Overview of Methodology .................................... 10II) Government of Albanias commitments to gender equality A Brief Overview ............................................................................................. 14III) Overview of Socio-Economic Situation of the Regions .................. 20IV) Womens economic engagement A Brief Overview ..................... 23

Female employment in the public sector ...................................................................... 25Informal employment among women ........................................................................... 25Womens role in the agricultural sector ........................................................................ 27Part-time employment and paid work at home ............................................................. 28

V) Womens Unpaid Care Work in Albania What we discovered ....... 30Households an overview ............................................................................................ 30Womens Unpaid Care Work Use of Time ................................................................ 31Womens Unpaid Care Work Social Protection and Social Services ........................ 36Womens Unpaid Care Work Accessing Health Care ............................................... 40Womens Unpaid Care Work and Utilities ................................................................... 42Womens Unpaid Care Work Implications for Economic Engagement .................... 44

VI) Conclusions and Recommendations ............................................... 48VII) References .................................................................................... 53Annex 1: Methodology, validity and limitations .................................... 54Annex 2: Focus group questionnaires and Time Use Diary ................... 57Annex 3: Labour market tables ............................................................ 63


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Definitions

Note to the Reader:When conducting the research, there was at times confusion among ourpartners about what was meant by womens unpaid care work, gender rolesand associated terms, and how these ideas relate to household roles andeconomics and individual womens economic engagement. The following is anin-depth explanation of the terms and concepts which form the basis of theResearch:

Gender is the socially constructed differences between men and women. This isdifferent from sex, which is the biological difference between men 1 and women.When we say that men and women are not the same, we refer not only to

differences in biology (biological/sex differences) but also to the different rolesthat have been created by society (gender differences). 2

Gender roles are in a constant state of flux in response to changing social andeconomic conditions. For example, in a crisis situation, women may take ontraditional male roles, e.g. heads of families, industrial workers or soldiers. Thegender roles we play change throughout the course of a day. For example, if amother stays home from work to take care of her sick child, she is playing atraditionally female gender role. That same mother, once the child is healthy,may go outside of the home to work and/or act as the main wage earner for thefamily in this, she is playing a traditionally male gender role. Society willdetermine how each role will change but it should be understood that one rolecannot change without impacting another. Because gender is constructed bysociety and not fixed, stereotypical notions of male and female roles can bechallenged. In all societies, these roles have evolved and have changedthroughout a cultures history. The term gender roles and genderstereotypes are often used interchangeably. These are the roles that traditionhas created. 3

Unpaid Care Work: The term unpaid care work in this report refers to taskscarried out mainly by women in the home, such as housework, cooking, andcaring for children, old people and sick people where the person doing this workis not paid. The term includes work done for the family as well as what issometimes called volunteer work, where individuals assist other households orthe community more generally. 4 Many other terms have been used for what wecall unpaid care work and these terms, as feminist economist Diane Elsonexplains, often lead to confusion. For example:

1 Here, when we say men and women, in fact, we mean men and boys and women and girls. Forlanguage purposes we use more often men and women.2 Advancing Gender Equality Using CEDAW and UN Security Council resolution 1325, Training Module for Gender Equality Advocates, UNIFEM Regional Project Women for Conflict Preventionand Peace-Building in the Southern Caucasus, Dec 2006.3 Ibid.4D. Budlender, Why should we care for unpaid care work? published by UNIFEM, Harare, 2004


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Domestic labour: Does this refer to what we call unpaid care work ordoes it refer to the work of paid domestic workers?Unpaid labour: Does this refer to what we call unpaid care work or doesit refer to the work a woman does without pay in the family businessand/or in the fields?Reproductive work: Does this refer to what we call unpaid care work ordoes it refer to giving birth and breast-feeding?Home work or Home-based work: Does this refer to what we callunpaid care work or does it refer to paid work done in the home? (aspiecemeal labour taken in the home, such as sewing, rug-making, crafts,etc., or when preparing goods in the home through a subcontract froman employer) 5

Gender responsive budget: "Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) is aboutensuring that government budgets and the policies and programs that underliethem address the needs and interests of individuals that belong to differentsocial groups. Thus, GRB looks at biases that can arise because a person ismale or female, but at the same time considers disadvantage suffered as aresult of ethnicity, caste, class or poverty status, location and age. GRB is notabout separate budgets for women or men, nor about budgets divided equally.It is about determining where the needs of men and women are the same, and

where they differ. Where the needs are different, allocations should bedifferent." 6

Economically active population: Refers to all employed and unemployedpersons (including those seeking work for the first time) who are eligible foremployment. 7

Inactive population: Comprises the people engaged full-time in studies, theelderly who are retired, those who are disabled and unable to take up

5 Elson stresses that the term care does not mean that the work is always done willingly, or withlove. Whether the work is done willingly depends on the relationship between the caregiver andthe receiver and perhaps other people in the family or society. In some cases, the care is given

unwillingly, because the woman feels forced by psychological, social or even physical pressures(in D. Budlender, Why should we care for unpaid care work? published by UNIFEM, Harare,2004)6 Debbie Budlender, 2006, www.gender-budgets.comWe can also find another definition of D. Budlender that defines GRB as involving an analysis of the government budget in terms of its reach and impact on women and men, girls and boys. AGRB is thus, in effect, a form of policy analysis from a gender perspective. GRBs do not focus onlyon the numbers contained in the budget. They focus as much if not more on the policy andprograms underlying those numbers. Ideally, they also focus on what happens when the policiesand programs are implemented. The added value of GRBs in terms of policy analysis is that theyrecognize that any other government policy or program will not be effective unless adequateresources are allocated to implement it. D. Budlender Expectations versus Realities in Gender-responsive Budget Initiatives, UNRISD, Final Version, March 2004, Cape Town7 INSTAT, Labour Market in Albania, 2005, Tirana


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employment, full-time homemakers [or housewives], persons in compulsorymilitary services, and persons who are not employed and are not looking for a

job. 8

Labor force: 9 All persons classified as employed and unemployed 10

Informal Labour force: In this report, we define informal labour force as allpersons declaring themselves not to have entitlement to social insurance fromthe employer.

Employed: Persons who work for pay, or who normally work, but aretemporarily absent from work. This includes employees and self employedpeople as well as unpaid family members working at a family business. 11

Unemployed: Persons who are without work, are available to work, and are

searching for work.12

Employment rate: This represents the number of employed people as apercentage of relevant population, e.g. by sex and age group. 13

Unemployment rate: This represents the number of unemployed people as apercentage of relevant labour force, e.g. by sex and age group. 14

Activity rate: This represents the active population (employed andunemployed) as a percentage of the relevant population, e.g. by sex and agegroup. 15

Social Services: In this report we define social services not only as servicestargeted for the groups in need, but also as all services for the improvement of living standards such as care for children, care for the elderly, education andhealth care services and provision of the population with the basic needs suchas electricity, sanitation, water, etc.

8 INSTAT, Labour Market in Albania, 2005, Tirana9 ibid10 According to the ILO definition, the labour force participation is: (a) relaxed definition: Includesthose individuals who work 15 hours per week or less in agriculture; (b) standard definition:Includes among unemployed also discouraged/seasonal/laid off workers11 INSTAT, Labour Market in Albania, 2005, Tirana12 ibid13 ibid14 ibid15 Ibid


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Executive Summary

How women and men divide their time between paid and unpaid work changes

over time, both because the demographic characteristics of people change andbecause people modify their behaviour due to broad cultural and socialtransformations.

What is the situation of women and mens use of time inside and out of thehousehold in Albania? How are women and men sharing their family and liferesponsibilities and how does this affect their economic engagement and socialconditions? What is the responsibility of the state in the provision of varioussocial services that would support a more equal distribution of the care burdenin the family? This study attempts to provide some answers to these questions.It does not claim to cover the whole spectrum of issues that these questionsraise, but rather to shed light on key points for further discussion and analysis.

The study starts with the assumption that most of the unpaid care work inAlbania is still predominantly performed by women, both when they areemployed outside the household and when they are not. Our goal was toanalyze to what extent this is the case, what the main reasons behind it are andhow this affects womens economic and public engagement and what can bedone to improve womens access to state-run services and programmes insupport of unpaid care work.

As a Time Use Survey has not yet been undertaken in Albania, the presentresearch uses a focus group methodology accompanied by the distribution of time use diaries for focus group participants. Focus group discussions with

women and men, and with local authorities and experts from 10 municipalities(urban areas in Kuks, Lezh, Shkodr, Rrshen, Tiran, Elbasan, Librazhd,Pogradec, Vlor, and Fier) were carried out. We also used all availableinformation provided by surveys such as LSMS (Living Standards MeasurementSurvey), ARHS (Albanian Reproductive Health Survey) or 2001 Population andHousing Census 2001.

The study documents many of the complex issues surrounding the lives of women focusing on care for children and the elderly, access to health care,social protection, household utilities and the impact that unpaid care work hason womens economic engagement .

x Women still carry the burden of household engagements (such ashousework, cooking, shopping, etc.) and the care for the other familymembers. Housework and care for the other is their main activity duringthe day. Men have the role of decision making in the household, theytake the most important decisions and also keep the household budget.

x Women have little leisure time and most of it is spent in having coffees with friends or neighbours at home and watching TV. There is a lack of civil and social participation that is affecting their abilities to understand


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x Womens lack of knowledge of and limited access to social services is one

of the issues leading to women being locked in their unpaid care workresponsibilities. Child care results to be one of the main responsibilitiesfor women. Care for the elderly is one of the other responsibilities of

women because of the lack of appropriate institutions. Thus, thequantitative and qualitative lack of child and elderly care institutions isone of the main reasons that women have difficulties staying andreturning to the labour market.

x Access to health care services still remains problematic for women. Onereason is the abovementioned fact that a high number of them are notaware or particularly targeted in employment schemes and this impactstheir access to the health insurance system. 16

x The majority of participants in the research are suffering from the lack of electricity and water and this directly affects women, who have to providethe household with water and with alternative ways of heating such as

wood. This is a high physical and psychological stress mostly for womenand children.

x Regarding their economic engagement, there is a high number of womenengaged in the informal sector (60% in the private non-agriculturesector). Thus, they are not included in the social insurances scheme and

they do not benefit from this protection net.x They have also many difficulties to stay and return to the labour market.

The lack of opportunities in the current labour market is one of thereasons. Limited employable skills beyond traditional sectors is another.But another important reason is the fact that they are overloaded withhousework and care for family members and cannot cope with a full time

job.

These are some of the findings of the research and they allow for drawing amore complete picture of the everyday lives of Albanian women, with a focus on

the missing piece of the puzzle their unrecognized, unpaid and thus invisible work in the household, which occupies a significant amount of their time andaffects their lives in numerous ways. The impact this invisible labour has on theoverall economy of the country remains unrecognized and misunderstood. Thestudy concludes with a set of recommendations to partners on how to alleviatethe unpaid care work burden by informing and monitoring local and central

16 Officially the majority of the health care services are free of charge; however people often giveunder the table payments in order to get adequate services.


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budgets from a gender perspective, thereby ensuring a more adequate responseof social services to womens needs and how to increase womens economicopportunities through increased information and access to community andstate provided opportunities. Overall, more efforts are needed to get women inlocal communities more engaged outside of the home.

We believe that unpaid care work should become very soon an issue which willneed to be made visible through proper measurement and analysis. While insome countries the discussion about how to include unpaid work as part of thegross domestic product has already started, Albania still needs to introduce inits statistical system elements to measure it. We hope that this report will makethis need clear and serve as a foundation for further discussion on theresponsibilities and measures of the state to support womens reconciliation of

work and family life and more equal division of work between women and men.

I) Introduction and Overview of Methodology

There has been extensive research about various issues, economic, social andpolitical that have affected and are affecting the Albanian society mainly after1990. Since the beginning of the post 1990 period, women were affected by a lotof difficulties. Some of them found themselves out of work, others found

themselves heads of households with husbands and sons emigrating abroad,and still others found themselves not so free anymore because of the return of some old patterns, etc. The transition years launched a gradual change inAlbanian women and mens traditional roles.

During the communist regime, women benefitted from policies for thepromotion of women, in terms of full education and full employment. Also, theparticipation of women in the social and political life was promoted andsupported. For many, womens representation in political life was considered atoken representation, but despite this, women were more active in decision-making at that point in history. This was also accompanied by a heavy burdenof women who had to be engaged in a paid work, had to be active socially or

politically, but also had to be in charge of the house work and care. In theframework of the ideology of the communist regime, the state was responsiblefor offering people all the necessary services, such as care for children byproviding crches and kindergartens, free access to the health care system,elderly care, etc. Nevertheless, women had to bear a multiple burden due to thetraditional gender division of roles.

After 1990, the situation of the Albanian society changed dramatically, passingfrom a centralized economy to the free market, and from a state umbrella foreverything to a chaotic state having to cope with extreme poverty, with the


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destruction of all existing industries, high migration, a dramatically inadequateinfrastructure, etc.

Since the 1990s, various researches and studies have pointed to thedeterioration in womens economic, political and social status over the period of transition. Women in Albania have suffered from many problems related to:access to the educational system, mainly the secondary one 17 , entering andstaying in the labour market, physical and psychological violence whichperpetuates and reproduces inequalities, accessing and benefiting from anadequate health care system 18 , a very poor social protection system addressedonly to people and groups in need, etc. Female participation in the labourmarket is low compared to males as unemployment and activity rates show.Also, the participation of women in politics and the decision making system isnot progressing since 1990. Only 17% of business managers are women andthere is only one woman mayor in Albania. 19

As womens roles have changed over the years, it is necessary that statesupport for the provision of policies, social protection and opportunities reflectsthese changes in roles. For some years now, the Albanian government hasengaged in addressing gender equality issues and the promotion of women. In2004, the countrys first Gender Equality Legislation (GEL) was adopted 20 and arevised draft GEL with significant advances was approved by the Council of Ministers in early 2008 and is now before the Parliament for adoption. In 2006,the GOA adopted the countrys first legislation on Domestic Violence. 21 Inaddition to the above, the GOA adopted the National Strategy on GenderEquality and Domestic Violence (NSGE-DV 2007-2010), the first of its kind inthe country. A number of international commitments towards gender equalityhave also been made such as ratification of the Convention on the Eliminationof All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1993; genderequality commitments with the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action in1995; the signing of the Millennium Declaration in 2000, and the signing of theStabilization and Association Agreement with the EU in 2006.

Although there are some studies and researches about the situation of womenin the labour market, the educational system, political participation andmigration, there is little information about womens unpaid care work. Recentresearches about labour market gender inequalities highlight that even thoughthe unemployment rate of women is high, there is also a hidden issue, namely

17 The secondary education level is characterized by a higher enrollment rate of boys compared togirls. For the year 2004-2005, data shows that the male enrollment rate is 53.03 % while thefemale enrollment rate is 46.97%. (UNDP, Gender Policy Analysis in the Ministry of Educationand Sciences, 2005, Tirana)18 UNDP, Gender policy analysis in the Ministry of Health, 2005; UNCT, Common CountryAssessment 2004;19 MoLSAEO, National Strategy on Gender Equality and Domestic Violence, December 2007,

Tirana20 Law No. 9198 dated 1.07.2004 On Gender Equality in Society, amended in 2006.21 Law No. 9669 dated 18.12.2006 On Measures Against Violence in Family Relations


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the participation of women in the informal labour market and their invisible work while caring for their household members. Yet, these studies do not go indepth to analyze this issue. Therefore, we considered it very important to delveinto the reasons and consequences of unpaid care work, with a specificemphasis on its impact on economic engagement and on state policies neededto address it.

Unpaid care work refers to tasks carried out in the home, such as housework,cooking, and caring for children, old people and sick people where the persondoing this work is not paid. Our assumption in conducting the analysis wasthat women perform the bulk of unpaid care work in the household, which hasnegative implications on their opportunities to engage in economic and publiclife. Our main questions in conducting such research on womens unpaid care

work were as follows:I) What is the extent of unpaid care work performed by women and

men in the household? What is the link between unpaid care workand economic engagement? Is our assumption true or, in other

words, does the fact that women have to care about children, theelderly, ensure the state of the familys health, take care of thehousehold and all related utilities, etc., hinder them from beingeconomically and socially active? Are they retiring from the labourmarket or not entering the labour market in the first place in orderto have more time to care for household members and duties? Isthe availability of state services which can support unpaid care

work (i.e. day care, health care, social protection) impacting theirdecision to enter the formal labour market? What is the situationregarding their engagement to the informal labour market?

II) What is the state support regarding the unpaid care work of women and men, what are the social services that the state offersto women in order to cope with their household work andresponsibilities? How is the provision of services for children,elderly and sick people? Can women have adequate access tohealth care services? What is the level of social protection inAlbania and how are women covered by this system, etc.? Whatcan the state do to better support women regarding their unpaidcare work?

III) What is the understanding of women and men of their rights vis--vis state support regarding family and unpaid care work? What istheir understanding of how much their respective roles in thefamily both men and women impact their economic and publicengagement?

It is very important to see how women and men perceive their situation, how women consider the fact that they predominantly care for their household whiletheir husbands consider themselves predominantly breadwinners within thehousehold. This is an issue highlighted from other reports and studies. Themajority of women participating in this research are unemployed or out of the


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labour market, thus, depending economically on their husbands. As we will see,this affects many of their rights.

Methodology 22

When we consider how womens work is conceptualized and measured, fivedistinct types of work can be distinguished: formal market work, informalmarket work, subsistence production, unpaid care work, and volunteer work.Only formal market work is adequately measured by conventional datacollection methods; the others all require the design of better methods of datacollection or, at an even more basic level, new conceptual frameworks anddefinitions. 23

Time use surveys are the main tool used to measure unpaid care work. Sincethey require the use of national statistically representative sample, they arenormally carried out by state statistical agencies. No comprehensive time usesurvey has been conducted in Albania. Therefore, we decided to use thefollowing participatory research approach which is the first to be implementedin Albania to date - focus group discussions with women and men in 10 largemunicipalities of Albania, followed by the administration of a time use diary 24 tothe participants. Altogether we administered 225 25 time use diaries, (122 filledout by women and 103 by men) while there were 26 focus groups 26 featuring atotal of around 260 participants. Alongside the focus groups work, ASCconducted a secondary research and data collection at the national and local

level, including review of policies, strategies and other documents related tounpaid care work.

Women and men participants in the focus groups were represented by differentage groups, different economic activities and were usually married as we

wanted to focus on this category in order to analyze the situation of married women and men. (The detailed profile of participants in the focus groups ispresented in Chapter V.) The focus groups with women and men were followed

22For more details of the Research Methodology used, please see Annex I23 Progress of Worlds Women 2005: Women, Work and Poverty UNIFEM, p. 23

24 It must be said that this is not a precise time use survey and that the main method for thisresearch was focus group discussion. The time use diaries were used as a second method, inorder to complete the findings and to have a first look at the use of time of women and menbecause there is no national scale Time Use Survey in Albania. The diary was divided into 2hours time span. When women and men were reporting more than one activity, we asked them totry to precise what was the main activity among all those reported. Thus, main activity intendsthe activity that women and men report as the most important during the respective time span.25 The number of TU diaries is smaller than the total number of participants because for reasonsof time, or lack of will, some of them did not fill out the diary.26 This is the number of focus groups with participants in the research. The total number of focusgroups including local authorities and experts is 50 and the total number of people participatingin these focus groups is around 400.


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by focus group discussions with local authorities and experts in order to havetheir opinions on the issue of unpaid care work, but also theirrecommendations. This allowed us to make more concrete and usefulrecommendations about needs and future actions.

As our primary method was the focus group discussion, the number of participants is quite low compared to a wider national time-use survey, which isthe ideal methodology. Also, there was the risk of shifting out of the semidirective questionnaires of the focus groups because of other themes of discussions proposed by the participants. Nevertheless the combination of thefocus group methodology with the administering of a simple time use diary gaveus very good information that illustrates the patterns, causes andconsequences of unpaid care work in Albania.

An initial draft of the research was shared with the local authorities and expertsin order to incorporate their comments in the final report. This also allowed forexpanding the menu of recommendations for the support of womens unpaidcare.

II) Government of Albanias commitments to gender

equality A Brief Overview

Gender equality has been placed higher on the agenda, if we consider theinternational and national commitments that the Albanian government hassigned onto.

International Commitments In 1993, Albania ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Also, on June 23, 2003 Albaniaratified the CEDAW Optional Protocol which strengthened CEDAWsenforcement mechanisms. 27 The CEDAW, adopted in 1979 by the UN GeneralAssembly, is often described as the international bill of rights for women or theWomens Convention. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines

what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda fornational action to end such discrimination and to achieve substantive equality.By accepting the Convention, States commit themselves to undertake a series of measures to end discrimination against women in all forms and to ensureequality of results, including:

x Incorporate the principle of equality of men and women into thelegislative system, to invalidate all discriminatory laws and adopt

27 For a detailed review of the implementation of CEDAW in Albania, please refer to the CEDAWAssessment, Albania prepared by Chemonics International for USAID


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relevant laws prohibiting discrimination against women. This alsorequires mainstreaming of gender through all relevant governmentpolicies and programmes and draft legislation at both the national andlocal level i.e. PRS, Community development plans, rehabilitation andreconstruction plans, etc.

x Establish tribunals (courts) and other public institutions ensuringefficient protection of women against discrimination; and

x Ensure the elimination of all actions that discriminate women byindividuals, organizations and enterprises.

Countries that have ratified or acceded to the Convention are legally bound toput its provisions into practice and to move beyond de jure equality and toensure equality of results equality which is felt by the average woman andman. The backbone of the CEDAW is the first four articles of the Convention

which deal with Discrimination (Article 1), Policy Measures (Article 2), HumanRights and Freedoms (Article 3) and Special Measures (Article 4).

The Convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women andmen through ensuring women's equal access to, and equal opportunities in,political and public life -- including the right to vote and to stand for election --as well as education, health, social protection and employment. State partiesagree to take all appropriate measures, including legislation and temporaryspecial measures, so that women can enjoy all their human rights andfundamental freedoms, and enjoy a life free from violence. Emphasis is alsogiven to protecting and promoting the rights and opportunities of rural women.

The Convention is the only human rights treaty which affirms the reproductive

rights of women and targets culture and tradition as influential forces shapinggender roles and family relations. State parties also agree to take appropriatemeasures against all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of women. 28

EU Standards - Gender Equality

Albania participates in the Stabilization and Association Process (SAP), which isthe EU's overall policy framework for Western Balkan countries. The SAP isbased on a progressive partnership, in which Albania benefits from regional andfinancial assistance under the CARDS program and the new Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) and a far-reaching contractual relationship with theEU, including trade preferences, through the Stabilization and Association

Agreement (SAA) which was signed in 2006.29

In January 2006, the European Council adopted a revised EuropeanPartnership for Albania. The European Partnership identifies short and mediumterm priorities which Albania should address, serves as a checklist against

which to measure progress, and provides guidance for EC assistance. In July

28 This information refers to the CEDAW website, www.un.org/daw/cedaw/index.html29 www.europa.eu


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2006, Albania adopted a national action plan to implement the EuropeanPartnership recommendations. Progress on these reform priorities isencouraged and monitored by the European Commission, notably through theannual Progress Reports and through political and economic dialogue. 30

In signing the SAA, the Government of Albania expresses its commitment toachieving several priorities for gender equality, such as:

* equal opportunities and protections in the workplace whereby Albania shall progressively harmonize its legislation to that of the Community in the fields of working conditions, notably on health and safety at work, and equal opportunities. (Article 77)

* Cooperation shall also seek to support the adaptation of the Albanian social security system to the new economic and social requirements, and shall involve the adjustment of the Albanian legislation concerning working conditions and equal opportunities for women, as well as the improvement of the level of

protection of the health and safety of workers, taking as a reference the level of protection existing in the Community. (Article 99)

*Parties shall also cooperate with the aim of ensuring that access to all levels of education and training in Albania is free of discrimination on the grounds of gender, colour, ethnic origin or religion. (Article 100)

The European Commissions Progress Report for Albania in 2007 stated thefollowing Albania is progressively approximating its legislation on working conditions and equal opportunities to European standards as regards gender equality. However, the State Committee on Equal Opportunities remains weak and the Gender Equality Act remains largely unimplemented. Further action is needed to facilitate women inclusion in the labour market and their participation in the decision-making process. Albania remains at an early stage in mainstreaming gender in employment as well as in other policies. 31

With regard to women's rights , Albania is progressively bringing its legislation on working conditions and equal opportunities into line with the acquis. Amendments to the 2004 Gender Equality Act gave the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities exclusive responsibility for gender equality. This led to the creation of a specific ministry section for gender equality issues. A new law addressing domestic violence has been adopted. It regulates the network of authorities which deal with domestic violence and provides new protection measures for victims, for example

protection orders issued by courts. A new master's programme in gender and development has been set up by the Gender Studies Institute in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Tirana University.

30 ibid31 European Commission, Albania 2007 Progress Report, Brussels, 6 November 2007


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However, the Gender Equality Act does not ensure full protection against discrimination on grounds of gender as provided under the acquis and has in any case remained largely unimplemented. Further work is needed on putting in place a national strategy,

implementing legislation and structures and trained staff. Government bodies dealing with gender issues, such as the State Committee on Equal Opportunity, remain weak, as do related NPOs. Work on the cross-cutting National Gender Equality Strategy is not yet complete. Further steps are needed to improve women's inclusion in the labour market and their participation in political and economic decision-making processes. Women comprise 10 of 140 members of parliament. One of 15 government ministers is a woman.Albania remains at an early stage in mainstreaming gender in employment and other

policies. The new domestic violence law does not make domestic violence a specific offence and does not cover the issue of force marriages. Albania continues to be a source country for the trafficking of women, often minors, for sexual exploitation.Overall, there has been some progress on strengthening women's rights. However,Albanian legislation does not yet protect these rights sufficiently and is not fully implemented.

European Commission, Albania 2007 Progress Report, Brussels, 6 November 2007Economic and Social Rights

In light of the future Albanian membership to the EU, it should be also notedthat the issue of reconciling work and family life has been on the EU agendasince the 1980s and during the 1990s, steps were taken towards forming anagenda of reconciliation of work and family life. Today this issue appears to behigh on the agenda of the EU institutions and the social partners. 32

National Commitments to Gender Equality and Womens Unpaid Care Work An overview

This section will provide a brief overview of the gender specific and sectorspecific codes and legislation which impact womens rights in the area of unpaid care work.

National law on gender equality is meant to uphold the internationalcommitments made under CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action and the EUSAP and SAA. The Constitution of Albania sanctions the equality of all citizens(Article 18 of the Constitution), stipulates that women and men are equal andare to be treated the same. However, treating women and men, the same resultsin de jure equality, not equality of results, because women and men are

32 Reconciliation of work and family life and collective bargaining in the European Union European Foudation for Improving of Working and Living Conditions;http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/other_reports/work_family_life.pdf


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of children, elderly persons, and persons with limited abilities. The law was prepared by a group of NPOs with international assistance.

National Strategy on Gender Equality and Domestic Violence (NSGE-DV) 2007- 2010 In December 2007, the Government of Albania adopted the NSGE-DV. Thisstrategy consists of two parts: I) Gender Equality and; II) Eradicating DomesticViolence. The strategy aims to:

1. Promote dialogue on achieving gender equality in Albania. GenderEquality is defined in this document as equal participation of women andmen in the social, economic and political life of the country, equalopportunities to enjoy all their rights and to offer their individualpotential for the benefit of the society;

2. Improve protection, legal responses, support for victims of domesticviolence, as well as increase focus on prevention and addressing the rootcauses of domestic violence.

Of the 8 overall objectives of the NSGE-DV, those most relevant to womensunpaid care work are: economic empowerment of women and increasingemployment opportunities and professional training; improving the socialsituation of vulnerable women through increasing their access to quality socialservices; and improving populations health through increasing response of thehealth system to the particular health needs of men and women.

Social Protection Sector Strategy 2007- 2013 Since 1997, with the assistance of the World Bank, the Albanian Government designed the medium-term strategyfor social services (1998-2002) and currently it is further developed in thestrategy for social welfare (2007-2013). The defined objective is to enhancehuman rights and equality of opportunities and treatment by providing targetedsocial services. The social services 36 system aims at increasing the communityrole and extending the kinds of social services in order to give a better responseto the clients needs. It aims to implement a process of deinstitutionalization,and decentralization of funding and competencies to municipalities/communes,so that social services are incorporated as one of priorities of municipalities/communes.

The strategic goals of this strategy are the reduction of poverty, the reform of the system of social services and the support of groups at risk of socialexclusion. Although social insurance is a core component of social protection,

36 Currently, according to the previous and current strategies on social services or socialprotection, social service refers to all the services offered to the individuals and groups in need,that are not capable to face, with their current resources, their basic needs. This means that onlygroups and individuals in needs are targeted and there is no reference to the unpaid care work of

women.


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this policy area is presented in a different sector strategy, which is theresponsibility of the Ministry of Finance following the changes in the socialinsurance legislation. It must be said that one of the main weaknesses of thesocial protection system is the lack of integration between sectors with thesame target, sectors that are operating separately with little cooperationbetween them. So, future reforms may be focused more on addressing thesystem as a whole, where parts of it are integrated with each other, where anychange in one part has consequences in the others. This should be one of thechallenges for the social protection system in Albania

The other point to be reiterated regarding the social protection sector strategy isthat as it was the case for the strategy of social services, the target groups areonly the ones in need. Social protection is not meant for the whole society butonly for groups in dire need such as orphans, trafficked women, the disabled,poor people, etc. The positive thing of this strategy is that one of its objectivesis the possibility of extending social protection to the whole society.

III) Overview of Socio-Economic Situation of the Regions

Migration is one of the main characteristics of the Albanian society after the1990s. Thus, this phenomenon affects all the regions in Albania. Among theregions that we focused on, Kuks is the one with the highest rate of migrationof the local population. According to the 2001 Census, Kuks and Mirdit wereparticularly susceptible to these changes. Kuks has lost 19.7% of itspopulation while Mirdit has lost 26.5% of its population due to internal and

external migration since 1991.37

Tirana is the region that has gained the mostpopulation in terms of the internal movement of population, 41.1% of itspopulation. People from all the regions of the country came to Tirana, mostly inthe peripheral area of Paskuqan, which is another area that we focused on.Paskuqan is characterized by a migrant population, a high number of which isnot registered at all. This affects many other issues in this area such aschildren education, employment, etc.

While until now we speak about internal migration, international migration isthe other phenomenon of post-90 Albania. Approximately 25% of the Albanianpopulation has migrated abroad between the two Censuses (1989-2001),according to the last Census 38 . As in the case of internal migration, all the

regions of the country have been affected by international migration. The regionof Vlora is one of those that have lost most of the population due to theinternational migration to Italy and Greece. 26% of households in Vlora haveemigrants abroad. 39 At the same time, migrants from other areas of the countrymoved to Vlora, thus there has been a replacement of the loss of population.

37 INSTAT, Population in Albania 2001, Tirana38 ibid39 UNDP & OXFAM, Vlora regional development strategy, Tirana 2005


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Vlora is one of the less poor regions of the country, according to LSMS 2002data. The characteristic of Vlora is that, at the same time, it is the region withthe highest inequalities between poor and rich people. 40 Regarding populationmovement, the other regions that we analyzed have not very important changesin the population number because approximately the population that migratedhas been replaced by internal movements, remote areas toward the centre andrural toward urban.

As we mentioned above, Vlora is one of the least poor 41 regions in the country. The table below presents the situation of the regions that we analyzed regardingpoverty (headcount and FGT1 (depth of poverty)). As we see, the two small areasof Paskuqan and Vau i Dejes are the poorest ones and this still shows the gapbetween traditional urban areas and new urban areas. The difference betweenurban and rural is also shown if we compare poverty rates of municipalities

with districts (that includes also the rural area). As we notice, Librazhd, Fierand Vlor are the less poor municipalities. This can be explained by the highemigration rates of these areas. As stated by the participants in the focusgroups in these areas, many families are depending on remittances, and thisseems to be one of the main incomes for the families in these cities.

Table 1: Poverty headcount, depth of poverty, population and number of households per municipality, according to the 2001 Census and 2002 LSMSdata. 42

Municipality Poverty headcount* FGT1 Population HouseholdsFier 10,55 2,40 56164 14739

Vlor 12,73 2,95 77652 19979Librazhd 13,25 2,55 7216 1733Lezh 16,61 4,32 14420 3543

Tiran 17,84 4,06 341453 89764Pogradec 18,24 3,80 23762 6001Elbasan 19,33 4,01 86148 22076Shkodr 20,79 4,50 83274 21928Kuks 21,42 4,61 17157 3560Rrshen 25,69 5,82 11447 2614Paskuqan 27,76 6,37 21055 4545Vau Dejs 38,79 10,07 9430 2107Source: Census 2001, LSMS 2002

40 World Bank, Albania Poverty Assessment, June 2003,41 Here we refer to the full poverty line, estimated with allowances for basic nonfood items,estimated to be 4,891 Leks per capita per month. The poverty measurement according to LSMS2002 is based on consumption and not on incomes, as incomes are not very regular. According tothese measurements, one-quarter of the Albanian population, or close to 780,000 individuals, fallbelow the poverty line in 2002.42 Danaj E., Papps I. Policy Impact Analysis: Distribution of Economic Assistance Block Grants,MoLSA and MoF (Department of NSSED), 2005


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*Poverty headcount is the percentage of population below the poverty line that in 2002is 4891 Leks**FGT1: This poverty index shows the depth of poverty, also known as poverty gap,

quantifies the average income shortfall of the poor in relation to the poverty line.

Regarding the socio economic situation of the respective regions, if we refer nowto the picture given by participants in the focus groups, the high level of poverty, problems with the supply of electricity and water and the badinfrastructure were among the most acute problems. During focus groupdiscussions, it was stated that because of the internal movements of population, the situation regarding the average education level was not asstable as before, and now was tending toward lower education level. Regardingthis issue, it must be said that there are two types of migrants, the educatedones that go toward centers such as Tirana 43 for better opportunities of education, and the others that search for better living conditions and

employment and generally go from rural and remote areas toward urban areas. The level of these former is the same as or lower than the receiving population.Another aspect that affects the level of education among migrants is the processof being registered in the Civil Registry Offices. Many migrants do not register atall and, as a consequence, their children cannot go to school. 44

The bad economic situation was one of the reasons why many participants would prefer to migrate, and the destination places were Tirana (inside thecountry) and United States, as the most promising ones. The opportunity of migration was more highlighted by men then women. Women would prefer tostay in the city of origin but have some more opportunities of work. During thediscussions in some of the regions, all women said their husbands were abroad,mostly in Greece, and this was the only source of income.

The impression of participants in focus groups is that women coming to townsfrom rural areas had in general only eight years of school. During the focusgroup discussions it was noticed that, when participants spoke about migrants,it was always in a pejorative way, as the ones spoiling the labor market,decreasing the cultural level, decreasing the average education level of cities,being causes of higher delinquency, etc., and this was highlighted more inLibrazhd, Elbasan and Tirana as these are among regions who receive migrants.In other regions such as Kuks, as a region that has lost most of population tomigration, the tendency is that the population is becoming old, and theopportunities are decreasing because there is not much investment.

As it was highlighted above, almost in all the regions observed, remittances were considered the main source of incomes. In some of them, they are stillconsidered like this, but there is a slight decline. After the first years of highemigration and high remittances, the situation is changing. Emigrants, mostly

young people, have now created families in the country of residence and they

43 Ekonomi M, E.Danaj, E.Gjermeni, Gender Perspectives in Albania, INSAT, 2004, Tirana44 World Bank, Albania Poverty Assessment, June 2003


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are having other obligations. Thus, the amount of money that they send toAlbania is lower than before as it was stated more by participants in Fier,Pogradec, Librazhd and Elbasan. What is also important to be highlighted isthat remittances in some cases are considered one factor for womens

withdrawal from the labour market. In particular, young married women withmigrant husbands stay at home and care for the family while their husbands

work abroad and send money to their families. This was most highlighted bylocal experts during the meetings.

As it was presented above, Kuks and Rrshen have very high poverty andunemployment rates, and a very high rate of migration abroad and to otherregions of Albania. The picture offered by statistical information is alsoillustrated by the perception of participants in focus groups. For them, there

were really few possibilities for new jobs, especially in Rrshen, Kuks, and Vaui Dejs.

The pre-1990 industrial sector is now greatly altered and diminished, and thesectors of services and agriculture are extremely limited. This was more thecase of Elbasan, Shkodra, Vlora, Fier and Tirana. In Vlora and Fier, as touristcities, there is the possibility of tourism development, but participants say thattill now, this development has been very chaotic and it remains a non-protected sector. Also, women participants in the focus groups in Vlora weresaying that there is a discrimination of age and status because youngunmarried women are preferred by employers, because of fewer engagementstoward housework and children.

Paskuqan is perceived as the informal area par excellence not only regardingthe labor market but also land issues, unregistered people in the Civil Offices,unregistered children that as a result of this do not go to school, etc. There arevery few possibilities for employment in this area, which is expecting to becomea municipality. Most men are employed in the informal labour market mostly inthe construction sector.

With regard to labour market issues, the most important question, common tofocus group participants in all regions, is the informal labour market. Its sizeand importance differs from region to region, but it is mostly highlighted inVlora, Fier and Tirana where the private sector is more developed.

IV) Womens economic engagement A Brief Overview

In this section we try to give a brief overview of the economic engagement of women based on focus group discussions but also on LSMS data and otherstatistical sources.


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Regarding the profile of participants in focus groups, their level of educationand their economic engagement is as follows: The majority of them hadsecondary education and this was quite similar for women and men. However,there is a higher percentage of women than men who only obtained elementaryschool. The percentage of women and men with secondary vocational educationis very low, and this illustrates the overall situation with the number of vocational schools declining dramatically after 90.

Table 2: Level of employment of the participants (in percentage), by sexMale Female Total

Unemployed 45 63 76 68Employed 32,3 22,7 27Retired 4,0 2,4 3

Total 100 100 100

Source: Participants in FGs

As may be observed above, the majority of women participants in focus groupsare not participating in paid work. That is why unpaid care work will beanalyzed both for women engaged in paid work and those not economicallyactive or unemployed. The majority of young women participants had neverbeen involved in paid work

After 1990, a going back in the past picture is being noticed for women andgirls in Albania. The withdrawal of women from the labour market wasaccompanied by a decline in enrollment rates of girls and boys 46 with differentrates in different education levels. What is important to say is that the declineof the enrollment rate for girls begins after the primary level, and this is moreobserved in rural areas. In rural areas also girls marry at an earlier age, andthere is a link between the marriage age and the educational level, the higherthe education level the later the age of marriage. 47 After 1990, there has been adecrease in the age of marriage for women and an increase in the age gapbetween husband and wife. 48 During FG discussions, some of the womenparticipants were highlighting the fact that especially in rural areas (but also in

45 Here it must be said that, in the case of women, it refers not only to unemployed. This

category includes women unemployed but also women withdrawn from the labour market. Thedifficulty with the definitions is that for the majority of participants the term unemployed isused for all cases, even for the ones that are not seeking a job any more.46 According to official statistics in the pre-primary and tertiary education, the enrollment rate forgirls is higher than that of boys. Meanwhile, in the primary and secondary education, the boys enrollment rate is higher. In the secondary education in 2004 the ratio of girls to boys is 0.94.Nevertheless, there is an important aspect to be highlighted, which is the difference between ruraland urban areas. In primary education, there are no differences between rural and urban areas.Regarding the secondary education in 2004 the ratio of girls to boys in rural areas is 0.82 while inurban areas it is 1.(MDG 3 in NSSED progress report 2005).47 Danaj E., Festy P., Zhllima E., Becoming an adult: challenges and potentials for youth inAlbania, Tirana, 200548 Danaj E., Festy P., Zhllima E., Becoming an adult: challenges and potentials for youth inAlbania, Tirana, 2005


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urban ones in a lower scale) young girls are no longer going to school after the 8 years of the primary level, and the trend is to marry at a young age, preferably with migrant young men, which will ensure incomes for the family.

Female employment in the public sector

One of the main areas of formal employment for women and men in the regionscovered is in the public sector working with local and national authorities. Infact, it is important to note that for many of the participants in focus groupdiscussions both male and female, both experts and authorities interpret theterm employed as meaning working within the public sector. Women aremore employed in the public sector, and within the public sector, they arepredominantly employed in the health and education sectors [i.e. in jobs that

mirror the care that they do unpaid at home!]. They also work within social work, but seldom at the decision-making level and rather at positions which arecharacterized by lower than average salaries but at least offer socialprotection. 49 It is important to note that the government recently pledged toincrease the salaries in these sectors, mainly for teachers and nurses in orderto improve the quality of the public service. (See Table 4 and 5 in Annex 3)

Another important detail is that most of the women employed in the publicsector in the activities mentioned above need to have a certain education. Asmentioned in the Labour Market Assessment, human capital does not seem tobe an important factor in explaining the relatively poor labour market outcomesfor women. Particularly in the rural areas, there is an increase in the number of

younger women, who are dropping out of, or being taken out of secondaryschool. As such, they are not as able to compete in the formal labour market particularly in the public sector. Thus, their economic opportunities are oftenfound in the agricultural sector, and in the broader informal labour market.

In other cases such as Paskuqan, the reason for being out of the labour marketis mainly related to the fact that women do not have to work 50 . It is up to theman to bring incomes and to work, so women do not have to do it as well. InPaskuqan, this was expressed openly but in other cases this mentality washidden or unconsciously accepted under the expression better stay at homethan work for a low paid job, forgetting that staying at home and not beingeconomically active makes women dependent on their husbands, isolates them

from social and civic participation and also influences their access to social andhealth insurances.

Informal employment among women

49 UNDP, Gender policy analysis in the MoLSA, Tirana, 200550 Facts from the FG in Paskuqan


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Informal employment is a dominant feature of the labour market in Albania. The majority of workers are employed in informal arrangements outside thecoverage of labour legislation and social insurance. Although much of theinformal employment reflects the nature of the Albanian economy, informality isalso considerable in more modern, urban non-agriculture sector. During theearly years of the transition, informal employment was important both to theeconomy and to the welfare of many households. However, it is alsosignificantly correlated with low earnings, poverty and vulnerability. 51

Just over three-quarters of the total employment is informal, according to thedefinition used in this report. Most of these workers are in agriculture.According to the LSMS data, 76% of employment in 2004 was informal, asdefined here. About 60% of the informal labour is comprised of workers inagriculture who are either self-employed or unpaid. The remainder is roughlysplit between self-employed and unpaid workers outside of agriculture andinformal wage employees. 52

According to LSMS data 2005, 53 more than 60% of the women working in theprivate sector do not enjoy any social protection, because they are not payingsocial contributions. This means that the private sector is offering jobs for

women more in the informal than in the formal labour market. (See Table 6 and7 in Annex 3)

Women declaring themselves as self-employed seem to run this kind of businesses 54 with low revenues and almost entirely working in the informalsector. Self-employed women in the non-agriculture sector are working mostly(around 50%) in the retail trade, which means small businesses, close to thehouse or using part of the house which allows them to do their unpaid care

work as well. Two other activities which seem to be applied by self-employed women are hotels/restaurants and manufacturing of clothing (See Table 3 inAnnex 3). This last activity is mostly characterized by handicraft products madeby women at home and in some specific areas of the country, where traditionalproducts can be traded in the market. If we assume that self-employed is equalto a business or to a potential business, this means that for self-employed

women these three activities seem to offer more possibilities in the Albanianbusiness environment. It is important to mention that these kinds of opportunities to be self-employed are convenient for women, as they offer theflexibility to balance home and work life. . 55

51 Albanian Labor Market Assessment, World Bank, page 62, May 2006,

52 Albanian Labor Market Assessment, World Bank, page 62, May 2006,53 ASC staff calculation by the data set of LSMS 200554 This is referring mostly to non registered business55 In these cases, women are working in both places, being housewife and economically active atthe same time.


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The LSMS data suggests that women do not prefer informal wage employmentrelative to other types of work and relative to men. One reason is that femalerelative earnings in informal wage employment are very low. In 2004, female

wage workers in the informal sector had mean hourly earnings that were 44%less than women who are employed in the formal sector. In comparison, theformal-informal wage differential for men was only 19%. 56

The majority of women participants in the focus groups have been working inthe private sector at some point in the past. When asked about the reason of leaving the work force, women responded that the salary was very low, they

worked without work contracts, and so were unprotected from being fired atany time, the insurances were not paid, and working conditions were very bad(particularly reported in Shkodra and in relation to the industrial sector). Thus,there were no reasons for working in such bad conditions and getting nothingback. This was one of the points where they needed state support. Regardingthis point, both women and men highlighted the need for the strengthening of trade unions, and this was more stressed during focus group discussions in

Tirana, Elbasan and Vlor. Only the ones working in the public sector wereprotected by a work contract and insured. The question of the informal sector

was the most important one for all the participants. This was the reason forleaving the work force, but this was also the reason for not entering it. Womenand men reported that the only possible jobs were in the private (and thus tothem, the unprotected and informal) sector. Therefore, it was judged somehowuseless to work in such conditions.

Womens role in the agricultural sector 57

In order to better understand the employment situation of women in Albania, itis important to explain the disparity between the situation in rural and urbanareas. In the rural areas, agriculture dominates the economy which has alabour market that operates very differently from the labour market in urbanareas where the non-agriculture sector predominates.

According to the data from LSMS 2005, 39% of agriculture labour employmentis composed by male and 59% female, (See Table 1 in Annex 3) leaving 2%undefined. Some important features of agriculture: a) In most of the regionscovered in this study, this is the primary employment opportunity at both a

small, self-owned and larger scale; b) The undefined 2% could be in partbecause there is a large emigration of the men which has reduced the male

workforce in the rural areas; c) There is a lower level of education of women inagriculture and; d) The labour force in the agriculture sector basically reflectsthe composition of the total population at the working age (15 years old and

56 Albanian Labor Market Assessment, World Bank, page 65, May 2006,57 This section refers mostly to the World Bank report Albania Labour Market Assessment 2007and LSMS 2005 data.


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over) with women prevailing over men. The employment composition is alsoevidence that in the rural areas the entire family is employed in the agriculturesector, and often informally. In agriculture, working conditions are difficult

while salaries or revenues are pretty low. Furthermore, women are paid lesscompared to men in both sectors as confirmed by table 3. Especially inagriculture, net payment for women is 50% less than men while in non-agriculture, despite similar working time, female salaries amount to 75% of themale salaries.

Table 3: Average monthly usual net payment by gender in Albanian Lek ALL

Male FemaleAgriculture 13,750 9,140Non-agriculture 26,182 19,730Source: LSMS 2005

Employment in agriculture is composed mainly by worker on own account andunpaid worker in the household farm (76%). People are not employees forsomeone who is not a member of the household and also farmers werecomplaining about the lack of person power. In most cases, they are declaringthemselves as private individuals. Farmers keep producing mostly for theirpersonal needs while remaining engaged in several different and extensiveagricultural activities. According to LSMS data 2005, most of them are sellingtheir products in the market outside the community but still in the districtmarket (82% of them) and mostly directly to the final consumer.

We can conclude that the lack of alternatives for good employment make men

not willing to work in low paying jobs as women do, and thus men choose not to work in the agricultural sector, but seek migration as the most convenientalternative for them.

Part-time employment and paid work at home

Articles 14 and 15 in the Code of Work respectively treat part-time jobs and work at home. The part-time job is defined as an employment contract on thebasis of which the employee is obliged to work on the basis of hours, half a dayor on a daily basis, for a full workload per week, which is lower than the normal

weekly job. Part-time employment has the same rights and obligations asemployment on a full-time basis. The job done at home, as defined in article 15,is an employment contract according to which the employee carries out his/herown tasks in a certain place assigned to him/her according to the conditionsprovided by the employer. The employee working at home has the same set of rights with the employee who works in the place where the employer carries outhis own activity.

If we refer to the graph below according to the LSMS 2002, it comes out that forthe age-group 25-44 year old, females take up the highest percentage incontrast to males in the part-time employment and this could happen for avariety of reasons: women are much more occupied with household duties


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which prevent them from taking on full time employment, they pursue higherstudies, they face difficulties to find work full-time in the informal or formalmarket, etc.Whereas as for the age-group 55-64 and 64 + years old, it is mainly males thataccount for the highest percentage in part-time employment. This explains thefact that women about this age have retired and are more committed tohousehold chores or the care they perform for related children, and it is difficultto find a part-time job for this category of women . 58

Graph 1: Part time employed according to sex and age-group

0

10

20

30

40

50

15 2425 44

45 5455 64

64+M F

Source: INSTAT Women and Men in Albania, 2003, Tirana

29

58 This section refers to the useful contribution of Mrs. Valbona Jaupllari and to the report of UNDP, Gender Policy Analysis in the MoLSA, Tirana, 2005;


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V) Womens Unpaid Care Work in Albania What we

discovered

As mentioned above, the aim of this study was to have a better understandingof unpaid care work in Albania - what is the state support regarding the unpaidcare work of women, what are the social services that the state offers to womenin order to cope with their household work and responsibilities? What is thelink between womens unpaid care work and their economic engagement? Whatis the understanding of women and men of their rights vis--vis state supportregarding family and unpaid care work?

It is important to note that in this report we define social services not only asservices targeted for groups in need, but also as all services for theimprovement of living standards such as care for children, care for the elderly,education and health care services, and provision of the population with thebasic needs such as electricity, sanitation, water, etc.

Households an overview

For conducting the focus group discussions, ASC selected 10 municipalities,Kuks, Shkodr, Lezh, Rrshen, Tiran 59 , Elbasan, Librazhd, Pogradec, Fierand Vlor. These regions were selected in order to represent all areas of thecountry, and also different characteristics such as different levels of poverty,labour market, migration, opportunities, potentials, etc. Also, ASC conductedfocus group discussions in two periphery areas: Vau i Dejs in Shkodr andPaskuqan in Tirana. These areas were selected based on their specificities butalso as two ex-rural areas now considered urban (Vau i Dejs now is amunicipality and Paskuqan has been often at the centre of discussions on

whether to become a municipality.) Vau i Dejs is an area very near Shkodr, with a high number of emigrants (abroad and in other areas of the country),high rate of poverty, but what is more important - with a very high rate of female unemployment. Paskuqan is the peripheral area of Tirana, currentlyinhabited almost exclusively by migrants coming from the North of the countryafter the 1990s. 60 This area is now under the process of legalization but still

there is a very high level of informality.

59 In Tirana, two mini-municipalities, No. 5 and No. 6, were selected with each having differentcharacteristics in order to have better representation.60 The informal buildings in Paskuqan are now under a broad process of legalization, but still theinformality is the main problem for this area.


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Profile of participants

The division of our participants by sex was 46.27% male and 53.73% female. The average age of men participating in the focus groups is 43.9 years old andthe average age of women is 40.8 years old. The majority of the participants households are composed of four members, which is nearly the average numberof household members for urban areas. Only 6.33% of them live in households

with 7 members and 1.81% in households with 8 and 9 members. As this studyis based on urban areas there are not many extended families, because as datashows 61 , in the urban areas, the average number of family members is 3.9. Ananalysis of the diaries shows that 17.33% of the participants reported that theyreceive economic aid (Ndihme ekonomike NE), which is the governmentalprogram of assistance to address poverty in Albania. This means that they arein the category of the poor, according to the official definition of poverty in thecountry. 62

Womens Unpaid Care Work Use of Time

Based on the discussions in focus groups and the time use diaries, it can be

seen that most of womens time during the day is spent on maintaining thehousehold and care for children.

61 INSTAT, Population in Albania 2001, Tirana, 200262 According to the State Social Service (SSS), there is a set of criteria for being considered poorand thus receive NE, among which the most important are that the head of the household beunemployed and registered in the Labour Offices, not have properties for selling or renting, nothave land (which excludes all employees in agriculture), be registered in the Civil Registry Officesetc., have no other household members active for work, etc. (SSS, Poverty Mapping, Tirana,2002). There are a lot of criteria and the decision for entering in the NE scheme is based on ameans-tested method. It must be said that currently there is needed a reform of the criteria of allocation of NE in order to distribute it according to a more precise poverty mapping, as LSMScould provide. (See Danaj E., Papps I. Policy Impact Analysis: Distribution of EconomicAssistance Block Grants, MoLSA and MoF (Department of NSSED), 2005.


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Graph 2: Main activities in the morning 7.00-11.00 (% of women) 63

0

1 0

2 0

3 0

4 0

5 0

6 0

watc h ingT V

he lpin ge lde r s

h avin gc o ffee a t

hom e

prepa ringto g o to

work

h e l p i n gc hi ldren

prepareth e lu nc h

c lea ning ,s hop pin g

Source: Own analysis of time use diaries

As we see from the graph, more than half of women participants have as mainactivity in the morning cleaning, shopping and dealing with other housework.Preparing lunch is another activity and also the care for children. In terms of time during this interval, in the time span of 240 minutes in the morning, itresults that 134 minutes are spent for cleaning and shopping.

The majority of men diaries show that during this interval they go to work. Therest of them, those that are unemployed, spend most of the time in the morningby going out in search of a job, or going out with friends in bars.

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63 The diary was divided into 2 hours time span. For these graphs, we regrouped the time in fourhours.When women and men were reporting more than one activity we asked them to try toprecise what was the main activity among all the ones reported. Thus, with main activity isintended the activity that women and men report as the most important during the respectivetime span. The other calculation was done based on time spending. Based on the diary, wecalculated how many minutes were spent on average for the activities reported by women.


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Graph 3: Main activities for women at noon 11:00-15:00, (% of women)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

watchingTV

being atwork

visitssomeone**

care forchildren*

have lunch cleaning,shopping

prepare thelunch

Source: Own analysis of time use diaries*taking kids from school, preparing lunch for them, helping them in other things, etc.** in most cases, parents or parents in law

As we see from the Graph 3, during the noon period, the activities of houseworkand cooking remain the main activities for the majority of women participants.Another activity is the care for parents and parents in law and care for children.For around 12% of women, care for children is the main activity. In thisinterval of time, around 8% of women report as their main activity watchingsoap operas.

Graph 4: Main activities of women in the afternoon 15.00-19.00 (% of women)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

care forchildren

start preparingdinner

housework watching tv orhave a break

serve and havelunch

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The afternoon period (Graph 4) is the one where women have some free timespent in watching TV while the lunch is the main activity. It must be said that

the expression used by women for this activity was serve lunch to thehusband, because they wait for their husbands to come back from workaround 5 oclock p.m. and that is why they have lunch so late.

Graph 5: Main activities of women in the evening 19:00- 23:00 (% of women)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

visi t parents have dinner Having coffee (athome or outside)

watching TV care for children cooking andcleaning


Care for children means not only taking care of small children but also help children with homework and other school engagements.

From Graph 5, we see that housework becomes the main activity, becausearound 33% of women report as their main activity cooking and cleaning inorder to pre-prepare work for the next day. Care for children is the main activityfor around 32% of women.

There are gender differences in the amount of leisure time for women and men. The research reveals that women have very little leisure time, compared to men,due to their household responsibilities. This is the case both for paid working

women and for the unemployed/not economically active. As they say, womenspend very little time for themselves, or for their entertainment. This is seenalso in the fact that women smile sadly at this question by saying that they donot have time and money to spend for themselves. This was mostly the case inPaskuqan, Vau i Dejs and Rrshen and this could be linked to the higherpoverty rates of these areas. In the case of these regions, focus groups revealthat this is related to the patriarchal mentality that assumes that women haveto care for everyone else in the household and only at the end they may caresomehow for themselves. In the other cases, it was more a question of lack of time due to household obligations and lack of incomes. This is related to theissue of economic dependency of women as a very sharp problem, which we willcome back to later in the report.

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As it results from discussions in focus groups and from the diary processing,the main activities women engage in during the day (05.00-23.00), arehousehold engagement, (housework, cooking) and caring for children and otherfamily members; that is not the case for men who report mostly to be at work,searching for a job, meeting with friends in bars, or playing some sports.

There are very few women that report reading a book, or going out to thecinema or theatres (this is also because of the lack of offers of cultural activitiesfor both women and men). But, while men can go out have a coffee with friends,or engage in some sportive activities, this is not the case for women. Thus, thenature of leisure activities for men and women is different while for the firstthis takes place mostly outside the household, the latter are contained withinthe household. Regarding the weekend, women in focus groups said that this

was a time for more housework. They almost do not go out of their home, exceptfor doing shopping for the household or pay visits to relatives and friends.

Therefore, the burden of a job and of caring for the house and family membersrepresents a considerable obstacle to womens participation in the social andpolitical life. The lack of social and civic participation significantly limits theirabilities to understand and be aware of the types of socio-economicprogrammes, services and opportunities available to them in their communitiesand beyond. The situation is quite different for men who spend considerablymore time outside the household. When it comes to engagement in public life,

women do not participate in debates or meetings organized by the localgovernment. Sometime they say they have no information about such debates,but in other cases (and this is very important) they say that do not have anyreason to participate because they do not have any hope for change, they arevery pessimistic and even if they participate this is useless. The lack of trust inmeetings or debates was expressed both by women and men. The meetings oractivities organized by non-governmental organizations are in general the onlypossibilities for participation. The situation was much more problematic inareas where there is an absence of such organizations.

However, we noticed that very few of the women participating in the FGsemphasize this non-participation in the social and political life as a problem.For economically non-active and unemployed women, finding a job was mostlyrelated to payment. They say that if they do not find a well-paid job, they would

prefer to stay at home. As our research reveals, however, this often meansisolation from activities that are not contained to the household and even loweropportunities to engage in public life.Discussions in focus groups indicate that in most cases, men have the role of decision making in the family. This was seen mostly after focus groupparticipants were asked who kept the family budget. Most of them (both womenand men) said men kept the budget of the household. This was accompanied by

womens comments that it should not be men as they do not know concretehousehold needs, or spent money on things that were not useful to the wholefamily, etc. Men, on the other hand, said that they were the head of households,and some of them were saying that we are the ones that bring more income


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home. When decision making relates to the spending of money, in the vastmajority of cases, the final decision is taken by men of the family, who alsoreserve the right to decide on the number of children, their education, migrationor immigration of the family or one of its members, as well as on the marriage of children. Women have more of an informing and advising role about the need topurchase particular food items, or they advise on selling home-made products.

This issue is very much related to womens access to income and economicdependency. As pointed above, it may be seen also in their comments that

women, compared to men, spend very much less for themselves, only in caseswhen really needed.

Women's participation in decision making inside the family is also influencedby poor access to information and knowledge. Living an isolated social lifenegatively affects access to information. Empowerment of poor women and

women in the rural areas in decision making inside the family increases with anincreased education level and increased access to information, as well as withincreased income. A range of non-governmental organizations work towardsthis aim, and they have extended their outreach to the regions where there is aconcentration of unemployed and thus poor women, offering them information,advice, and also supporting professional development 64 .

Womens Unpaid Care Work Social Protection and Social Services

What we find from the research is that the lack of information and limitedaccess to social services is one of the issues (but not the sole reason) that leads

to women being locked in their unpaid care work responsibilities. In thesection below, we make an analysis of the main social services that couldsupport women regarding their unpaid care work.

Care for children, the elderly, and other family members

One of the main responsibilities in unpaid care work is that for children.Children care is one of the main issues to be analyzed when talking about

womens engagements in general. This may sound a repetition but in Albania,as in most countries in the world, women are considered the only personsresponsible for child care. During the communism period, due to policiesencouraging womens full employment and education, there were public day

care centres and kindergartens for children.

After the 1990s, with the major changes that took place in the Albanian society,the existing system of child care institutions experienced serious and negativechanges. In this case, it should be emphasized that the process of decrease inthese institutions and the closing of jobs for women may be considered very

64 MoLSAEO, National Strategy on Gender Equality and Domestic Violence 2007-2010, Tirana,December 2007


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closely related. If we look at figures in years (given below), we notice that thereis a major drop in the number of kindergartens both as institutions andnumber of children enrolled in kindergartens. The drop came as a result of theoverall turmoil that took place in Albanian institutions, which was accompaniedby the closure of numerous schools, kindergartens, enterprises, etc. Anotherreason that goes in parallel with it is the closing down of numerous jobs after1990, which mostly affected women. Womens withdrawal from the labourmarket toward the home led to a decrease in the number of children attendingday care centres and kindergartens as it was preferable to keep children athome as opposed

unpaid care work

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