Skopje, 11 February 2025 (МIA) — Although there are more women in academia than before, universities in the Western Balkans are plagued by institutional gender bias that prevents women advance their careers, especially in fields like engineering and technology, according to participants at the Global Women's Breakfast 2025, organized by the Institute of Chemistry to mark Feb. 11, International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova was one of the participants.

"My faculty, where we teach about gender equality, has not yet had a female dean," President Siljanovska Davkova said. 

"This is probably our fault," she said, adding that faculty members were mostly women, but few of them were in leadership positions.

Expressing her belief that the time of women was yet to come, Siljanovska Davkova said 2025 may be a pivotal year for gender equality because the UN was celebrating its 80th anniversary.

"Eighty years of the UN is a time for catharsis. The time has come for a female UN Secretary General and for a stronger role of the General Assembly, where the voice of not only large, but also small and medium-sized countries is heard," she said. 

"Let us read Hemingway again and say farewell to arms," she added. mr/