The North Macedonia Gender Equality Index score for 2022 is 64.5 out of 100, which represents an improvement of 2.5 points from the previous assessment in 2019. If advancement continues at this rate (2.5 points every four years), gender equality in all areas will be attained in about 57 years.57 In politics, the participation of women in North Macedonia has marked significant progress since the independence of the country, but as the Gender Equality Index suggests, work of achieving gender equality remains unfinished, even though, the Constitution and the laws generally comply with international standards and practices regarding prohibition of discrimination and the right to participate in political processes.
The increased number of women in the Assembly made it possible for gender issues to be part of the political agenda of the Assembly, while gender aspects permeated the discussions on the floor of the Assembly. The representation of 43% of women in the Assembly is due to the quotas for women prescribed in the Electoral Code, which requires from the parties to pay attention to the gender representation when creating the candidate lists. However, the compliance with this legal minimum requirement does not achieve the objective of gender equality, which implies substantive participation of women in the decision-making process and ownership of certain political processes.
The representation of women in special organizational forms within the parties and their inclusion in the leadership structures of the party are guaranteed by the statutes. However, the process of recruitment and selection for candidate lists is dominated by party elites, mostly men, whose only connection is the Electoral Code with the quota for female candidates. The lack of intra-party democracy, support for women candidates within the party, as well as sensitizing men within the party to create real space for the development of women in the political parties are proving to be the main obstacles to the advancement of participation of women in the political processes of the party.
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