Every third woman in North Macedonia over the age of fifteen has experienced harassment or violence. The country has some of the highest femicide rates in Europe. Women earn 12% less than men and do 72.5% of the unpaid care work.

Behind these numbers is a reality we live with every day and barely react to. A woman who left a job she was good at because the care at home was hers by default. A report on threats that was filed and went nowhere. A room where decisions are made with no woman in it. None of it should pass. Not once.

This is why Team Europe and the EU Delegation launched Wear the Change. Not a single commemoration of International Women’s Day, but a campaign that runs throughout the year, across the country, from March until the 16 Days of Activism in November.

Anchored by thought-provoking art from popular local illustrator Ruki Chuki, the campaign travels city by city: Skopje, Veles, Tetovo, Struga, Bitola, Strumica. In each city, ambassadors of EU Member States sit at the table with civil society organisations, municipal representatives and law enforcement to open difficult conversations around seven localised topics:

Who Pays the Bill

The Broken Shield

The Empty Chair

The Invisible Patient

The Endless Shift

The Harvest Without Her Name

Who Codes the Future

Equality is not decided only in institutions. It is decided in who gets hired and who gets promoted, in whether a woman is asked at a job interview if she plans to have children, in which parent stays home when the child is sick. In who speaks at a meeting and who gets interrupted. And in what happens when a woman says someone is threatening her, and whether anyone takes it seriously.

The law covers part of that. The rest depends on us.

When the law is not applied, ask the institution why and report it. Do not treat violence in a family as a private matter.

Wear the change where you are. At home, at work, in the room where the decision is made.

Links:

Skopje, March. Who Pays the Bill: The Cost of Inequality

Veles, April. The Broken Shield: Gender-Based Violence and Institutional Protection

Tetovo, July. The Empty Chair: Women in Politics

Struga, July. Who pays the Bill: The Cost of Inequality