Attitudes of Serbian political elite on women in politics

The aim of this article is to determine the influence of women in Serbian politics on the basis of attitudes of members of the Serbian parliament. The core of this paper is a survey carried out among both male and female members of the Serbian parliament. Our results show that there are two kinds of factors (obstacles) for greater participation of women in modern Serbian politics: 1) the system factor and 2) the psychological factor. Gender inequality is still present in Serbian society, and it is particularly influenced by traditional conceptions about gender relations and differences. The second factor is psychological. Although women can generally take part in public life and be engaged in politics, they themselves have psychological barriers which prevent them to take an active part in politics. The reason for this is the fact that women are taught to focus themselves on family and their private lives and their activities are not directed toward the public sphere. The duality between private and public aspects makes women feel awkward, as if they were put on some kind of trial of character, capacity and knowledge.