Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said in Pristina on Friday women's education did not benefit only women but society as a whole and that a higher level of women's education also improved the quality of living.
She was speaking at an international conference called "Partnership for Change: Empowering Women" which was opened by Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga, the Croatian foreign ministry said, adding that the participants included former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Bulgarian Deputy Defence Minister Augustina Cvetkova.
An unemployed man is treated as a social problem while an unemployed woman is just a housewife, Pusic said, adding that it was crucial to change that perception and fight for gender equality.
She said that fight began at home and continued through education and the building of social values. She said there was a high correlation between gender equality and economic development, reiterating that women invested 90 and men 40 per cent of their incomes into their families.
Pusic also commented on the importance of women's political representation, beginning on the local level, which she said could be ensured with quotas. She said this would make women more visible and make it easier to win greater representation in national politics, the media and the public life in general.
