September 29, 2021 - The Tricky Women/Tricky Realities Festival online event presents Croatia with thirteen female animation authors who talk about gender inequality and other issues of the modern world.

Online event hosting obviously gained momentum during the coronavirus pandemic, as going out became risky for public health. The advent of the vaccine has seen Croatia slowly but steadily returning back to public event hosting, but there are some exceptions. Maybe it's the extra precauiton due to Croatian vaccine scepticism, or maybe just the possibility of less expensive organisation and more potential for attending regardless of your location on the map, but some events have remained online.

One such event is the Tricky Women/Tricky Realities Festival, a Vienna Film festival described by Culturenet as the only animated film festival focused on female authors. Organised by the Vox Feminae feminist news portal and the Austrian Culture Forum (AKF), the festival is being streamed on the websites of the organisers until October 10, making this an official (but only online) visit of the festival to Croatia. 13 short animated movies are selected for the online screening.

''From gender equality to digitalisation, from human and workers rights do social, economic and ecological issues, the Tricky Women/Tricky Realities Festival questions social and political reality from the feminist art perspective, pointing out social inequality in a new and innovative way,'' describes the Culturenet website.

The festival usually occurs on March 8 to commemorate International Women's Day. TCN is also no stranger to writing about noted women from Croatia's history or about current issues with gender equality, on March 8 and of course on many other days too.

The authors whose short animated work the festival presents are: Maya Yonesho, Susi Jirkuff, Ani Antonova, Rebecca Akoun, Veronika Schubert, Sabine Groschup, Beate Hecher i Markus Keim, Billy Roisz, Kathrin Steinbacher and Anna Vasof.

The films showcased are subtitled in English, making the event approachable to non-Croatian speakers too. As the 2021 edition is in progress, the plans for the 2022 edition are already ongoing. Interested female authors can apply for their work to be shown by October 4 this year, and the 2022 festival screening is scheduled from March 9-13 in 2022.

''We're proud to be able to announce a new award: The Maria Lassnig Golden Film Reel for outstanding animation will be awarded for the very first time in 2022. Sponsored by the Maria Lassnig Foundation, it is worth 10,000 euros and will be awarded annually. An international expert jury will select the winner from the films shown in the International Competition of our festival,'' announced the festival's official website.

The award, named after Maria Lasnig (1919-2014), who was a pioneer of experimental animation and one of the first women in the German-speaking world to be appointed to a professorship in art, shows this valuable festival is here to stay.

Learn more about Filming in Croatia in our TC guide.

For more about culture in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 7 Sept, 2021 - A network of civil society organisations called "Fourth Shift - Invisible Work" on Tuesday launched a campaign to raise awareness of women's unpaid household work and encourage the creation of public policies to achieve a work-life balance for women and men.

The campaign is part of the project "The impact of public policies on the quality of family and working life and on the demographic picture of Croatia," led by the women's civil society organisation B.a.B.e.

The value of the project is HRK 3.6 million (€480,000), of which 85 percent is provided by the EU and the rest by the government. Its duration is 36 months, and it is being conducted in Zagreb and eight other regions.

The organisations have invited women to join the campaign by sharing their stories on what happens when they stop doing their everyday chores. They can share their stories and photographs on the Instagram and Facebook accounts of B.a.b.e. and the Twitter account of Iskra B., or if they want their post to remain anonymous they can send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The organisations wonder what kind of chaos would happen if women in Croatia stopped ironing, cleaning, cooking, doing the laundry and taking care of children. They say that such a scenario is indicated by the results of a 2017 survey carried out by sociologist Ksenija Klasnić.

The survey revealed that in 83 percent of the cases examined all or the majority of routine household tasks are performed by women, in 16.6 percent of cases partners equally share household chores, while men do housework on their own only in 0.4% of cases.

In 58.4 percent of cases, all or most work relating to child care is done by women, while men take care of children on their own only in 0.2% of cases. In the rest of the cases women and men share their child care duties.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.

ZAGREB, 24 June 2021 - Croatian MEP Predrag Matić said on Wednesday that it was a lie that his report on sexual and reproductive health, which will be put to a vote in the European Parliament on Thursday, promoted abortion.

"No one is advocating abortion, particularly not as a method of contraception," Matić said during the plenary meeting of the European Parliament.

"The number of abortions in countries where abortion is allowed is the same as in countries where it is banned. Only in these latter countries, it poses a risk to women's health as 23,000 women throughout the world die from it every year," he added.

Presenting his report, Matić said that abortion is a very difficult choice for every woman, but that in the end, every woman must have a choice.

"No one is denying doctors the right to refuse to provide a medical service for personal reasons, but at the same time the health institution must ensure a doctor who will provide the requested service," Matić said, adding that the resolution clearly says that health care falls within the competence of member states.

Matić, a member of the Croatian Social Democratic Party and the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament, said he had received "angry and disgusting" criticisms and hundreds of hate emails over his report.

He said that by voting for this non-legislative resolution, men would show respect for women's rights and women would show self-respect, while all members of the European Parliament should show what kind of Europe they wanted.

Matić said that opponents of the resolution were ready to ignore the parts of it speaking of improving women's health only to focus on the issue of abortion using "an unbelievable amount of lies and manipulation."

"Tomorrow is a great day for Europe and the entire progressive world. Tomorrow we decide on positioning Europe as a community that chooses to live in the 21st  or the 17th century. Don't let history remember us as the latter ones," Matić concluded.

The report was criticized by parties on the right side of the political spectrum for referring to abortion as a human right, for treating the issue of conscientious objection as a problem, and for sidestepping the powers of EU member states.

Croatian MEP Karlo Ressler (HDZ/EPP) said that the resolution uses confusing language equating conscientious objection with denial of medical care, while his colleague Tomislav Sokol said that Matić, by advocating sexual education in school based on gender ideology, was overstepping the competencies of the EU and telling the member states what they should teach in their own curricula.

"Matić drew up the report probably under the influence of foreign lobbies that promote abortion. This stems from the fact that in the report Matić gives an arbitrary definition of sexual and reproductive health that is not based on international law," Sokol said, demanding that the disputed parts of the report should be voted on separately.

For more news about Croatia, visit our dedicated page.

May 24, 2021 - Labour Minister Josip Aladrović presented five agreements in Zadar on Monday worth HRK 11.5 million for the employment of 130 women who have trouble finding a job due to insufficient qualifications and women who care for the elderly in Zadar and Lika-Senj counties. 

The contracts are part of the second stage of the ministry's "Make a Wish" employment program.

"The contracts will enable the employment of 130 hard-to-employ women and women who care for the elderly. The purpose of the project is to help employ people who have been out of work for a long time and are more difficult to employ and to improve care for the elderly in Zadar and Lika-Senj counties," the minister said.

He noted that more than HRK 63 million in the two counties had been invested through 33 agreements to employ more than 500 women who provide care for the elderly.

The Make a Wish employment program is one of the best programs financed by the European Social Fund. Of the initially envisaged HRK 300 million, its value has reached close to HRK 1.8 billion, the minister said.

As part of a project designed to improve the competitiveness and efficiency of women on the labor market, 20 women will be hired in Zadar to provide care for the elderly.

For more news in Croatia, CLICK HERE.

ZAGREB, 10 May (Hina) - More than 71 percent of those employed in Croatia have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, in most cases, they have been women, and there is an increasing number of complaints, however, they are still rarely processed by the courts, a survey presented on Monday shows.

The courts are not sensitized to process cases of sexual harassment in the workplace, partially because of the poor and confusing legislative framework with four laws that cover that area. Victims often aren't aware that this is a criminal offense and don't know either whom to or how to report that they have experienced sexual harassment, gender equality ombudsman Višnja Ljubičić said presenting the survey results.

The survey was conducted by an independent expert for combating violence against women, Dunja Bonacci Skenderović, on a sample of 448 people, 16 years since the last similar survey was conducted in Croatia by the ombudsman's office.

The latest survey, although it was not conducted on a representative sample, indicates that three in four women and half the men experienced sexual harassment in the workplace and that in 61% of the cases the abusers were their superiors.

The explanation for such a high percentage of men is the fact that only 32 men completed the questionnaire. The survey also lacks gender segregation which would show whether that 50% of men were harassed by women or other men.

Gender-conditioned harassment

"In order to be able to talk about gender-conditioned harassment, it needs to be said that 60% of women were harassed exclusively by men while it is unclear who harassed the 50% of men," said Ljubičić.

As far as reports of sexual harassment of men are concerned, her office has received only one complaint by a man who was harassed in the education system by his school principal, while several men reported they were harassed because of their sexual orientation.

"Men who were sexually harassed because of their sexual preference were harassed by other men and not women," underscored Ljubičić, adding that it is important to supplement this survey.

The majority of victims of sexual harassment in the workplace keep that a secret. As many as 83% of those surveyed had not reported these cases due to lack of confidence in their employers that anything would be done after they reported it, said Bonacci Skenderović and underscored that sexual harassment in the workplace is a criminal offense.

The Criminal Code is currently being amended with regard to sexual harassment which, Ljubičić said, should in future treat it as gender-conditioned violence. Court proceedings will be launched ex-officio based on reports made to the police and the statute of limitations will no longer be limited to three months, but ten years instead, she said.

For more, follow our lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, 21 April, 2021 - Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Wednesday that women filled more than 50% of management positions in this Croatian ministry.

Addressing a video conference called "Women’s Contribution to Peace and Security: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead," the Croatian foreign minister, who was the host of this digital gathering, said his country appreciated the contribution made by women to the security and stability of the society.

Croatia is taking measures to boost the representation of women on the national political scene, the minister said.

The conference was organised by the Croatian foreign and defence ministries as part of Croatia's year-long presidency of the US-Adriatic Charter (A5).

Some of the participants in the event were former Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovć, and officials of the USA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro.

For more about politics in Croatia, follow TCN's dedicated page.