Women in Slovenia

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Women’s Day celebration
Last year marked the 150^th year of birth of Clara Zetkin, the initiator of the International Women’s Day, March 8. This year the day of celebrating economic, political and social equality and other achievements of women will mark the 100^th anniversary of the first large women’s rights demonstration - organised in New York on March 8, 1908 - when some 15,000 women employed in the textile industry demanded more rights for women.

The International Women’s Day has been celebrated almost every year since early 20^th century but at different dates. The United Nations started to celebrate March 8 as the International Women’s Day in 1975, the International Women’s Year. Two years later, in December 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted a special resolution proclaiming March 8 the International Women’s Day. The theme for this year’s celebration is “Investing in Women and Girls”.

Women in the EU
In 2006 the European Commission adopted a roadmap for equality between women and men 2006–2010, while the Council adopted the pact for gender equality; this shows active efforts on the part of the EU to reach the goal of achieving actual gender equality. Gender equality policy is the central theme of two issues that are in the focus right now: growth and employment, and demographic changes.

Fewer females born, but they live longer
Women represent more than a half of the population in Slovenia. At the end of 2006, there were 1,023,395 women and girls living in Slovenia, 51% of the total of 2,010,377 people living in our country.
The value of the sex ratio for Slovenia has been decreasing since 1969. Even though every year fewer girls than boys are born (the ratio is 1 to 1.05), in the total number of population women predominate over men by a ratio of 1.04 to 1. Due to genetic, sociologic, health and other reasons, women have a lower death rate; on average they live five years longer than men.
In 2006, 18,932 children were born in Slovenia, 9,170 girls and 9,762 boys, which is 775 children or 4.3% more than a year before. A half of them (49.6%) were first-born and more than a third (35.8%) were second-born.

Postponing births to later ages
Mothers were on average 28 years old when they gave birth to their first child. They namely postpone childbirth to later ages. In 2006 the mean age of mother at first childbirth increased by 0.2 of a year. Only about a quarter (23.9%) of women who in 2006 gave birth for the first time were under 25 years old, while 6.1% were over 35 years old. In 2006 the mean age of mother at childbirth was 29.7 years, 1.7 years more than of the first-time mother.

Almost half of children born to unmarried mothers
In Slovenia the share of children born to unmarried mothers continues to grow; in 2006 it was 47.2%. Compared to 2005 it was 0.5 of a percentage point higher. In mid-1970s only 10% of children were born to unmarried parents; by 1987 the share has exceeded 20% and by 2002 40%.

A girl born in 2005–2006 can expect to live 82 years
Life expectancy in Slovenia is on the rise. A boy born in 2005–2006 can expect to live 74.8 years and a girl 81.9 years. Compared to 2000–2001 female life expectancy grew by 2.3 years and male life expectancy by 2.7 years.
As regards female life expectancy (80.9 years), in 2005 Slovenia ranked 17^th among EU-27 Member States, while as regards male life expectancy (73.9 years) our country was 18^th. In the EU-27 a woman can expect to live longest in Spain (83.7 years) and shortest in Romania (75.7 years).

Women more rarely think that their general health is good
Due to different biological characteristics, reproductive functions, mode of work, exposure to risk factors and sexual roles, women and men have different sickness patterns. The results of the statistical survey EU-SILC carried out at the beginning of 2007 show the general health status of the surveyed persons. The most frequent answer to the question about the general health status was “good” (39% of women and 42% of men), followed by “very good” (14% of women and 17% of men), “fair” (29% of women and 26% of men), “bad” (14% of women and 11% of men) and “very bad” (both sexes 3%). The health status of course closely depends on the person’s age: older people are usually less healthy.

The number of women studying at tertiary level grows significantly
In Slovenia the share of people continuing education at tertiary level (vocational colleges and higher education institutions) is growing, especially the number of women. In the academic year 2006/2007, 115,944 people were studying at tertiary level, almost half (48.2%) of the population aged 19–23. Women represented 58.3% of tertiary students. The greatest difference between sexes was among students in old university and in Bologna higher professional and university programs (students are mostly 19-24 years old). According to the latest data available, the share of female students exceeded 60%. The opposite is true for old and Bologna doctorate studies, where men have a slight advantage over women in terms of the number of students. The share of women at post-secondary vocational studies is increasing and in the academic year 2006/2007 reached half of all students.

In 2006, 17,145 students graduated at tertiary level, among them 61.9% women – women represented the highest share of graduates at university studies (66.6%) and the lowest at doctoral studies (49.6%). Of all students who graduated from higher undergraduate programs and level 1 (Bologna) programs, in 2006 almost half graduated in the field of social science, business and law (among them 68.7% women). On the other hand, in programs from the field of science, mathematics and computing women represented only 2.6% of graduates. The situation was similar in the fields of engineering, manufacturing and construction. Women represented the highest share of graduates (80%) in the field of education and the field of health and welfare.

Fewer women than men immigrate to Slovenia
In 2006 Slovenia recorded the most intensive migration changes after 1994. However, almost four times more men than women immigrated to our country: 20,016 immigrants (4,266 women and 15,750 men), of whom 18,251 foreigners (3,526 women and 14,725 men) and 1,765 citizens of the Republic of Slovenia (740 women and 1,025 men).
On the other hand, 13,749 people (3,024 women and 10,725 men) emigrated from Slovenia; among them 1,636 female foreigners and 9.410 male foreigners and 1,388 female citizens and 1,315 male citizens.
Compared to 2005, in 2006 the number of people who immigrated to Slovenia went up by 33.1% and the number of emigrants by 59.8%.

In Slovenia too women are on average older than men
In mid-2007 the average person in Slovenia was 41.0 years old. The mean age of women was 3.3 years higher (42.6 years) than the mean age of men (39.3 years).
Women were on average older than men in all municipalities except in Hodoš, where men were older than women (44.1 vs. 43.6 years). The municipalities with the highest mean age of women were Osilnica (50.9 years) and Kostel (49.5 years).

In 2006, deceased women were on average 9.6 years older than deceased men
In Slovenia the mean age of women who died in 2006 was 0.3 of a year higher than in 2005, while the mean age of men who died in 2006 was 0.4 of a year lower than in 2005. Women who died in 2006 were on average 9.6 years older than men who died in the same year (78.1 vs. 68.5 years).

Commission Report on Equality between Women and Men: women in a worse position on the labour market than men
According to EU data, since 2000 women have occupied 7.5 million out of the total of 12 million of new jobs. In the EU 57.2% of women were employed in 2006, 3.5 percentage points more than in 2000, while in the same period male employment rate increase by less than 1 percentage point. Even though 59% of women have university education and they are better educated than men, their employment rate is on average 14.4 percentage points lower than that of men. Women earn approximately 15% less per hour than men do and they have more problems achieving high positions. The share of women managers is growing very slowly; at the moment they account for 33% of managers. When they have small children, only 62.4% of women are employed, while the share for men is much higher at 91.4%. As regards part-time work, the share of women (32.9%) is much higher than the share of men (7.7%).
The position of women in Slovenia is slightly better than in the EU in general: the employment rate for women is 61.8% (for men it is 71.1%). As regards EU-27, women are the best off in Denmark (73.4% female employment rate and 81.2% male employment rate) and the worse off in Malta (only 35% female employment rate and 74.5% male employment rate). Malta also has the largest difference between female and male employment rates (40 percentage points), while the lowest difference is recorded in Finland (4 percentage points). With 9.3 percentage points’ difference between female and male employment rate, Slovenia is 8^th among the 27 Member States of the European Union.

Women predominate among unemployed persons in Slovenia
In December 2007 there were 864,361 persons in employment in Slovenia, 43.3% of whom were women. The Employment Service of Slovenia registered 68,411 unemployed persons, 53.7% of whom were women. At the end of 2007 the registered unemployment rate stood at 7.3% - 8.9% for women and 6.1% for men. In 2007 the average unemployment rate was 9.6% for women and 6.2% for men.

Average monthly gross earnings of women 7% lower than of men
The difference between male and female earnings is the smallest (6%) among clerical occupations and the largest among craft and related trades; the average female earnings amounted to approximately 75% of the average male earnings. Average monthly gross earnings were the highest in financial intermediation. Even though in this activity earnings were the highest for both women and men, women still had only around 69% of male earnings. Female earnings were much lower than male earnings in health and social work (less than 71%).
Women had higher earnings than men in construction and in transport, storage and communication. In these two activities the share of employed women was rather low (only 10% in construction), but they had better paid jobs.

Women more frequently absent from work due to illness or injury of a family member than men
Women are absent from work due to illness or injury of a family member at least 10% more frequently than men. Between 2004 and 2005, 63,000 women in employment and 41,000 men in employment were absent from work due to illness or injury of a family member. Almost three quarters of persons in employment took leave from work to care for a family member: 48,000 or 63.1% women and 28,000 men. Only 13,000 people used free time to take care of a family member; in this case the share of women was 57%.

Last year the average pension qualifying period of women was prolonged by two months
In 2007 there were on average 518,805 old-age, disability, survivor’s and partial pensions from compulsory insurance, 1.6% more than in 2007. Among old-age pensioners 54.3% were women and among disability pensioners 40.1%.
Compared to 2006, in 2007 the retirement age for women increased by three months (to 57 years, 7 months) and for men by two months (61 years, 10 months).

At-risk-of-poverty rate the greatest for older inactive women
Data on at-risk-of-poverty rates of various socio-economic categories of persons show that all inactive persons are particularly vulnerable; among women, unemployed women were especially at risk (31.8%), while among women aged 64 or more the at-risk-of-poverty rate was 24.9% and among tenants 24.0%.
For both women and men the at-risk-of-poverty rate is successfully reduced by social transfers. If family and social transfers were not included in income, the at-risk-of-poverty rate would double; for older people it would exceed 30%.

Presence of women in politics is growing very slowly
According to recent data, the average share of women in national parliaments of EU Member States is 23%, while in the European Parliament it is slightly higher, 33%. The average share of female ministers in national governments of EU Member States is 22% (in Slovenia it is 20%).