E2E Story – Profession and gender stereotypes

Knjaževac: At the workshops which they organise, within the “Education to Employment” programme, for primary school pupils and secondary school students in South-East Serbia, the Timok Club tackles, among other things, the issue of so-called gender-sensitive professions, answering the question whether there exist women’s and men’s jobs or people are to choose their career based on their affinities and interests.

The border between traditionally women’s and men’s jobs has now almost vanished, as Sanja Džakula, career practitioner from the Timok Club, said.

“We want to encourage young people to, when choosing their future profession and making career choice, consider even those qualities and affinities which they have but which are not typical of their sex. That is why at the career guidance and counselling-related workshops we talk with the students about different career paths and try to disperse numerous gender stereotypes which we face in our everyday life. Typical characteristics of men or women should not at all be - or at least should not be the main - criterion in deciding on one’s future profession”, Sanja said.

Until several decades ago it was hard to imagine a woman in police or army, or a man in a kindergarten.

“For us who are working in the “Education to Employment” programme, gender equality is of utmost importance. We therefore encourage the companies with which we maintain cooperation to operate free of gender discrimination. There are many examples that, following the training, young women got a job at the places of work which were previously reserved for men only“, the Timok Club career practitioner said.

Sanja added that the number of such cases is growing, and among them is the example of DMV company in Niš where Marija Nešić works at the work position of a welder. “there are practically no jobs which cannot be done by either men or women, or that the number of such jobs is negligible”, Sanja concluded.

Text and photo: Ljiljana Pavlović / Edited by: Sandra Vlatković