A long-term process that has been taking place for several years already
According to the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson’s commentary, ensuring gender equality is a long-term process that comprises various areas and has been going on in Lithuania for years.
“In our country, gender equality issues have been consistently dealt with for 25 years – since the adoption of Republic of Lithuania Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men at the Seimas and the appointment of the first equal opportunities for women and men ombudsperson. These were significant steps that allowed including gender equality issues into all aspects of life and begin collecting and organizing information and assessing the impact on gender equality,” the Office pointed out.
“Workplaces not only react to emerging situations, but also try to organize work processes in such a way so as to prevent inequality situations altogether. Both the attitude of society and the reaction of people who face inequality are slowly changing – more often than not they choose to speak up and seek help. All these steps have brought us where we are today and help enforcing equal opportunities even more strongly,” the Office added.
Gaps still exist despite the work done
Within the period of 25 years, truly a lot has been done and achieved to ensure women’s rights and equal opportunities. According to the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, we have a lot of educated women in our country. This positive fact shows the availability of education in Lithuania.
“In Lithuania, there are more women with advanced vocational education or higher education than men (61% vs 39%). More women also take part in the lifelong learning process (23% vs 16%), and there are more female students in Lithuanian universities than male (59% vs 41%), according to the 2023–2024 academic year data,” the comment said.
Despite all this, gaps still exist in the system.
“Even though our women are more educated, their salaries are still much lower. It has been calculated that in the entire Europe women work almost two months for free a year, compared to men’s salaries. And in Lithuania there are no types of economic activity where the pay of women and men is equal,” – the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson representatives noted.
According to the 2022 Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson report (the 2023 report is still in preparation), more than 50 complaints were received due to gender discrimination, with women submitting almost twice as many complaints than men.
“A similar trend was seen in 2001 as well. The claimants often indicated degrading advertising, complained about sexual harassment and other types of disrespectful behaviour. The majority of violations were identified in the areas of consumer rights protection and labour relations,” the Office said.
Although the situation is imperfect, we do have things to be proud about.
“It is great that people are noticing instances of discrimination more often and decide to protect their rights; although, a more clear direction would help take more constructive action. The main thing that Lithuania really needs is a long-term gender equality implementation strategy which would encompass priority areas, specific measures, and target indicators,” the Office elaborated.
The situation is ambiguous
The commentary also said that, when it comes to gender equality, collection of information is very important, as well as the ability to analyse it and monitor trends.
“For this purpose, the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson and a team of scientists have created the Gender Equality Map that shows the differences between men and women status in various Lithuanian municipalities. Every municipality is ranked on a 100-point grading scale,” the representatives said.
They also explained what the map’s results meant.
“This map shows how each municipality is doing in terms of gender equality. The majority of municipalities are coloured in yellow on the map – this means that the results are good, and the differences between men and women status are below 50%.
We have a few municipalities where the situation is even better, and the difference is below 20%, for example, in Klaipeda District Municipality, Siauliai District Municipality, Kelme District Municipality, Druskininkai District Municipality, Kaisiadorys District Municipality, Sirvintos District Municipality, Vilnius District Municipality, and Svencionys District Municipality. The highest-ranked (88 points out of 100) municipality is Sirvintos,” they said.
However, according to the commentary, no country in the world has achieved perfect gender balance, so it is no surprise that the situation in Lithuania is not homogenous.
“The main obstacles for gender equality are various political, social, economic, and cultural barriers that create less favourable conditions for women, compared to men,” the Office continued.
The representatives also told DELFI how Lithuania was doing in the European context.
“According to the latest (2023) Gender Equality Index, which was published by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), Lithuania has yet to reach the EU average, but the situation has improved. Lithuania’s rating has grown by 3.5 points – we scored 64.1 out of 100, and moved up to the 17th spot on the index from 20th in 2022. Lithuania is still 6.1 points away from the EU average, though,” they stated.
The Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson noted that the overall score involved Lithuania’s gender equality indicators in five areas: work, money, knowledge, time, and health.
An important message
Clearly, there is still room for improvement in terms of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women, and in order to make this process faster and more streamlined, certain things should be taken into account.
“The most important thing is to react to discrimination and the creation of unequal opportunities and not lapse into indifference. First of all, these violations of equal rights have to be noticed, identified, and reported. The Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson specialists provide consultations and can be reached via email lygybe@lygybe.lt and by telephone +370 5 205 0640. Also, you can send an inquiry at www.lygybe.lt/klauskite or register for an appointment,” the comment said.
Help is available to everyone.
“If you suspect that you have been discriminated against, sexually harassed, or harassed, but are unsure, feel free to consult with the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson. The Office’s lawyers will help assess the situation and give advice on how to proceed,” the representatives concluded.
