Play with dad - Learning from the best - Conclusions

When it comes to gender equality and unpaid care work, what can we learn from our role models, be it our parents, our employers, our competitors, or countries we should look up to?

Ms Rebecca Fabrizi (British Deputy Ambassador to Serbia) pointed out that the issue of unequal distribution of unpaid care work between men and women is a global economic problem, not specific to Serbia only. She said that many factors play a role in this issue, primarily the level of development of care sector, political will, and legal framework. Ms Fabrizi also mentioned that politicians are less likely to deal with issues that are primarily faced by women. She shared with us a shocking statistics that family responsibilities are the main reason for 96% of women who work part-time and only 4% of men.

Ms Aleksandra Triantafyllidou (IKEA Regional Director for HR and a member of IKEA board of directors) stressed out the importance of joint effort of all members of society – individuals, companies, and politicians. Aleksandra also mentioned a lot of examples where other companies can look up to IKEA and she stated that leading by good example is always the most effective way of making good changes. In particular, the two major “family friendly” measures that IKEA has implemented are: 1) a paid fathers’ leave which allows fathers to take a month long paid leave upon the returns of their wives from maternity leave and 2) a part-time work option for both fathers and mothers which allows parents to work part-time for one whole month upon return from parental leave, while still being paid as working full-time.

Mr Joachim Waern (Swedish Deputy Ambassador to Serbia) underlined that men have to start talking about the issues of unequal distribution of unpaid care work, since these issues are currently being raised only by women and they do indeed concern men as well. Also, he pointed out that it is important that politicians start talking as well and constantly running campaigns on these topics. Mr Waern gave an example of Sweden where the topic of gender equality came to political stage in 60s and is still one of the priorities of every single political party. He also said that good role models are needed that is exactly what we do with these panels within the “Play with dad” project.

Ovaj tekst/analiza/publikacija/video/sadržaj nastao je u okviru projekta „Rodno odgovorno upravljanje – Preraspodela neplaćenog rada”, koji sprovodi Agencija Ujedinjenih nacija za rodnu ravnopravnost i osnaživanje žena u Srbiji (UN Women), u saradnji sa Koordinacionim telom za rodnu ravnopravnost, a uz podršku Vlade Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva i Britanske ambasade u Beogradu. Stavovi u ovom tekstu (ili drugom sadržaju) pripadaju isključivo autorima i autorkama, i ne predstavljaju nužno stavove UN Women, Vlade Ujedinjenog Kraljevstva i Britanske ambasade.

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