On May 20, 2020, the TPO Foundation held first online Socrates Cafe with students of the Faculty of Philosophy of University of Banja Luka, Faculty of Law from University of Zenica, Džemal Bijedić University in Mostar and students of the International Burch University in Sarajevo, as well as with university assistants. The goal of Socrates Cafe is to exchange ideas and views with students from different cities of BiH, in order to upgrade their knowledge, dialogically question the topic from different perspectives, as well as to change and develop their critical opinions and attitudes. The theme of Socrates’ cafe was “Do women have a place in politics?”
With Socrates’ questions, we discussed why women are not provided with enough space in political scene, why women do not have same support as men do, why the pressure is still greater on women when it comes to the demand for household, family and other obligations, etc. Opinions were different, and what the students pointed out was that today’s system, unfortunately, does not provide support to the women as they provide it to the majority of men, and that stereotypes and prejudices are still associated with women when it comes to her activity in politics. Women have to work for two men to be equal, they have to prove themselves, justify themselves, be very brave and fight all the obstacles on the way to achieve their goal. It is possible to change the patriarchy, in order to be able to change the society and the system, we need to start changing ourselves. Building awareness of gender equality is a priority that we all need to work on, so that we can up bring new generations through the prism of gender equality, equal freedoms of choice and equal opportunities for advancement and improvement. There is no division of labor between men and women, there are only stereotypes that prevent women in their development and professional advancement. These were some conclusions with the first online Socrates Cafe, which was run by the program coordinator of the TPO Foundation Melika Sahinovic. The next coffee is scheduled for May 21, 2020, when we will have the opportunity to hang out again with students from the universities of Sarajevo, Zenica, Banja Luka and Mostar.
