LEGAL FRAMEWORK CONCERNING GENDER EQUALITY IN REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Abstract

The patriarchal matrix that was established centuries ago was a fertile ground for the formation of the disparity between the two sexes in terms of their involvement in the spheres of the social life, so the stronger sex was determined to operate in most areas, at the expense of the marginalization of women within society. The constant evolution of the social relations has resulted slowly but surely in getting rid of the stereotypes that fed the patriarchal doctrine and in increasing the participation of women in the social spheres, which seemed so unreachable in past. I will say that it is a gradual process in almost all societies, where at the very beginning comes to a progress in the awareness of the community, aimed at creating the social areas where both sexes will participate equally, and later these circumstances will be legally regulated with norms that forbid any unequal treatment based on sex. Fact is that with the century-long profiling of men as the only capable to carry the most social functions, there is a disproportion with regard to the participation of men and women in social life. That’s why no matter that the legal order was establishing norms for recognizing the freedom and the rights of both sexes equally, in the most countries there isn’t until today equal participation of both sexes in the society.