Gender (In)Equality in Slovak Ministries Through the Perspective of Gender Regimes
Gender (In)Equality in Slovak Ministries Through the Perspective of Gender Regimes

Summary/Abstract: European Union gender equality policies have been increasingly interested in benchmarking and promoting higher representation of women in non-elected positions of power. While former Slovak government (2016-2020) achieved the highest proportion of women in ministerial positions as yet, according to EIGE’s Gender Equality Index, Slovakia still occupies lower tiers of the index with respect to “women in positions of power”. What is more, the available descriptive data does not answer questions concerning career trajectories and gender-based barriers, which may be experienced by women at Slovak ministries, let alone how these may be changing when the share of women in leading positions increases. The following study is inspired by the concepts of descriptive and substantial representation as it adopts the analytical approach of gender regimes in organizations to study formal and informal norms of gendered organizations. Results show that greater representation of women in leading positions moves the gender regime closer to one that favourable to women. However, the Slovak case study suggests, that even dominant or balanced representation of women in positions of power does not eliminate experiences with discrimination or gender stereotyping.

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