Research in the light of the local elections

Roma women in politics 

*About 65% of the respondents think that the women participation in politics will bring positive results. 
The Roma women vote for better future of their families in almost 78% of the cases. Voting for money, employment, flour, etc, according to the answers of the questioned is an overcome phenomenon. This was shown by the results of the research that the Roma women organization "Daja" from Kumanovo carried out in 15 towns in Macedonia. The research covered 1500 Roma women.

The goal of the research was to find out how much Roma women are interested in the political life in RM and the possibility to participate in it.

Only about 11% said they had participated in certain political activities. Most of the women asked, that is 73%, think they know the voting procedure well. Roma women from all over Macedonia are regular voters. About 85% vote regularly or occasionally. More than half of them vote individually. However, the "family" voting is quite common. Those who do not vote, state the lack of trust in politicians as the main reason. Only one third of the respondents know which institution is in charge of passing laws in RM. More than one third of them know who is in charge of carrying out the laws in RM. It is high time that Roma women involved in the political currencies of the Macedonian society. That is the opinion of 82% of them.

Roma women with bigger affinities can hope for full support from the women representatives of this ethnicum. About 93% declared that they would support a woman candidate in politics. However, the Roma women need political education, is the opinion of one half of the questioned. One third of the questioned demonstrated desire for getting involved into politics. The questionnaire has also checked the educational structure of the questioned. About 44% of them were completely uneducated, and about 40 of them have completed primary school only. As many as 86% of the women asked were unemployed, and for those that are, it is not known whether their employment is legally regulated or its illegal.