"Women should be let in where decisions on money are made and where real power is," said MP and former Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor. She said that increasing the number of women only because of quotas was not good and that conditions should be provided for women's participation in politics.
The participants condemned in the strongest terms PM Zoran Milanovic's recent message at the Women's Forum of his Social Democratic Party: "Be smarter, more intelligent and craftier and you will forget you are women. They will be afraid of you."
The share of local women councillors in the European Union is 35 per cent, but only 15 per cent in Croatia, said Helena Stimac Radin, head of the government's Gender Equality Office.
She said there was awareness in Croatia that there were not enough women in politics, and that all studies showed that political parties should include them more in the political life, but also that women should be more active.
The coordinator of the Centre for Education, Consulting and Research, Tajana Broz, recalled that 12 of the 39 women MPs were in deputy positions.
The round table, held ahead of International Women's Day, was organised by UN agencies in Croatia in cooperation with the Australian and Canadian embassies.