Gender Equity at Work and the Role of the Legal Factors in Albania

Abstract

Gender equity in general, and gender equity in the context of workand work relations, has been and remains an important issue, which is sensitive and open for debate.For many scholars the gender equity is the product of social nature factors and those of economic nature . There are also many scholars who associate the degree of gender equity to the role of national or international legal factors, which consist in the role of instruments, actors, and legal institutions. What could explain the upward-downward dynamics of Gender Equity at Work (GEW) observed in Albania? The extent at which the legal factors have determined the dynamics of GEW in Albania reflects the role and degree of influence of the legal instruments, the legislative, the executive, and judiciary. What we observed in the case of Albania are two realities: 1) the availability of the necessary tools guaranteeing the GEW and 2) the active role of the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. This paper analyzes the role of instruments, legislative laws, acts of the executive, and the judiciary decisions for the period 2006-2014, and it concludes that although legal factors have a positive impact in guaranteeing GEW, the latter and its upward-downward trends in Albania, more than with the role and influence of legal factors can and should be explained with the role and influence of social and cultural factors. Gender equity at work in Albania, more than a matter of instruments, laws of the legislative, acts of the executive, or judicial decisions, it remains at a considerable degree a matter of culture and behavior of the individual on a personal level, of the social group , or that of the state institutions.