THE STRUGGLE AGAINST GENDER-BASED DISCRIMINATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA AND THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Right to freedom from discrimination is a universal human right. The gender based discrimination issue is complex and complicated and thereare two forms of discrimination: obvious or direct discrimination and indirect forms of discrimination that are hard to notice. Although the struggle against gender based discrimination has taken place for longer period of time and at all levels, the efforts to enhancing women's position in society must not cease. On the contrary, the struggle against prejudice and stereotypes in this part of Europe is considerably more difficult than in the developed part of Europe and in the European Union, and it represents prerequisite for all other kinds of struggle against sexual discrimination. By emphasizing discrimination at work and during the employment, the paper delas with the notion of discrimination from the aspects of Croatian and Serbian legal systems, how the mentioned systems ban discrimination and struggle against it, how the position of women in practice and in real life differs from that governed by legislation, to what extent they contribute to struggling against this kind of discrimination. Women's struggle for better social position has also had negative effects even exceeding its contrariness. Larger participation in a political life, higher percentage of women in managerial positions, quicker promotion do not necessarily mean the automatic implementation of the same rules that apply to men but adjusting of those rules to a particular group - women, with the greatest respect for motherhood and other roles in which women are irreplaceable. Since the authors of this paper are young women, they are undoubtedly aware of the importance of taking the right position in the struggle against discrimination based on gender and of perseverance.