Business has no gender, but women own only 25 percent of companies

In every fourth company in Serbia, women are listed as owners. According to the data from the Business Registers Agency, of the total number of registered business entities, 74.5 percent of representatives are men and only 25.5 percent are women. Women are not more numerous than men in any register, including associations, endowments, and foundations.

Source: Bloomberg Adria

The American Agency for International Development (USAID) and Impact Hub have launched a four-year project “She Knows – Economic Empowerment of Women” focused on supporting women in Serbia to achieve their full potential and thus contribute to the communities in which they live.

Gaia Montelatici, program director of “She Knows” and co-founder of Impact Hub Belgrade, stated on the show Zoom In that the focus will be on women in business and those starting it.
“From September, there will be a call, starting with the Jablanica and Pcinja districts, where women can apply for education and retraining. We want to help them acquire the skills needed in today’s labor market and reach desired jobs more quickly and qualifiedly. On the other hand, we will fully support entrepreneurs who already have their own businesses or want to start one. By the end of the year, we will allocate non-refundable funds to them,” says Montelatici.

Source: Bloomberg Adria

Malina Stanojević, from the Association of Women “Save the Village” from Priboj, spoke about her personal and example of empowering women, especially in rural areas, noting that networking and financial support are important, but also providing living conditions – primarily infrastructure, both road and digital.

Source: Bloomberg Adria

“From such programs, I expect capacity building and raising awareness among rural women. We have already had similar projects, we have realized 36 projects so far, acquired equipment for processing fruits and vegetables, underwent marketing and digital literacy training, because it is important for us to raise awareness and skills to be more concrete in the market,” says Stanojević.
Ana Vidović, vice president of the AmCham Human Resources Forum, believes that in addition to financial support, it is crucial to change the attitude and approach of both women and men towards women who are at the head of the company.

“There is room for us to be better and equal with developed societies. This topic is popular worldwide, and despite our progress compared to earlier times, gender equality is a sensitive topic, and essentially, we could say that we are in the golden mean,” says Vidović.
How much is the salary difference in the same positions between men and women and how, apart from financially, women entrepreneurs can be empowered, see in the show Zoom In.