Thoughts of a Female Entrepreneur
“It’s a new working day. My meeting starts at 9 o’clock, so I need to hurry. Last night, I stayed up late preparing the presentation. I need to show that I am a reliable partner to new clients.
By the way, did I pack my child’s lunch for nursery?
The start of the month is slowly approaching. The flat-rate tax must be paid. Once again, on four separate payment slips. As if I don’t already have enough work, now I have to fill out four different payment slips and pay a commission for each one.
What will we have for lunch today?
I also need to pay the employees’ wages. I should send the accountant all the details about my employees’ annual leave. I don’t understand that salary calculation. I had to take out a loan for taxes and contributions again this month, even though it’s my first year of business and the company still needs to be developed. I hope I manage to secure a new client today so I can pay Nenad back – he has always been there for me when the bank refused to approve my loan.
Is grandma feeling better today? I’ll have to take her to the doctor.
Why did I even start my own business? Maybe I should have stayed at my old company. But then again, would Milan have kept me after my maternity leave? Why would he pay that much tax for me when I hadn’t worked for a year?!”
The Institute for Development and Innovation advocates for tax relief for mothers after their return from child care leave, to help them re-enter the labour market more easily.
And so it goes round. Work, family, work, family. A female entrepreneur always manages both her business and her household, and her thoughts are entwined with business and personal responsibilities. This raises the valid question: Is it the family that prevents women from achieving greater success in the labour market?
At a time when fertility rates in Serbia are below the necessary level for simple population replacement, it is important to ask what can be done to change this situation. Are the solutions in demographic policies and the continuous increase in one-time payments for the first child, or do the solutions lie in other areas of a woman’s life?
Being an entrepreneur or a manager in Serbia is not easy. Only about a third of registered businesses have a female founder, and even fewer women hold managerial positions (directors, legal representatives, etc.) in corporations. On the other hand, women in Serbia are, on average, more educated than men. The percentage of women with higher or tertiary education among all women aged 15 and older is 24%, compared to 20% for men (2022). Among enrolled students, 59% are women, and among graduates, even more (61%). However, men dominate in fields such as information and communication technology and engineering—occupations that are in high demand and offer high pay. It is interesting to note that in the academic world, women’s voices are rarely heard, despite women making up the majority of graduates and PhDs. Only 10% of the members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts are women.
Although women are, on average, more educated than men, their share in the active and employed population in Serbia is still lower than that of men. This, among other things, means that the Republic of Serbia invests in women’s education, but there are no adequate linked policies that would contribute to a greater return on these investments.
Where does the problem lie? Data shows that the NEET indicator is lower for women than for men. That is, the percentage of women aged 15 to 24 (or up to 29, in some indicators) who are neither working nor studying, nor in informal training, is almost 1 percentage point lower than that of men. So, in the early “working-age” years, women are more active in the labour market. How is it then that in the next cohort, the unemployment or inactivity rate for women is significantly higher than for men?
Three-quarters of marriages occur between the ages of 24 and 34, and the average age of a woman when having her first child is 29. One-third of employed women work fewer than full-time hours, with family care or the care of dependent adults being the main reason. Could this be the crux of the matter?
Balancing family life and returning to work or starting a business for women in Serbia is very complicated. From the lack of alignment between various childcare policies and the end of maternity leave to the almost complete lack of regulation of private childcare workers, the absence of incentives for employers to extend contracts for “new” mothers, and the simple administrative problems that send new parents from one counter to another. All of this contributes to a general mistrust that institutions will support them during those critical first years of settling into a new life. Because it’s not just about one-time payments; there is also something to be said for a continuous, well-organised system of institutional support.
And you, dear readers, should ask yourselves: Are the thoughts of a male entrepreneur the same as those above?
Until then, I must sign off. I need to pick up my child from nursery.”
Author: Milica Anđelković Đoković, researcher, Institute for Development and Innovation
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