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The conference "Equitable in value chain" was held on Tuesday in the Assembly of the City of Belgrade, organized by Serbia's Government Gender Equality Coordination Body and the Association of Business Women of Serbia On behalf of NIS, Nataša Stamenković, Human Resources Director, took part in a panel discussion titled “Experiences in Positive Discrimination – Strategies for Improving the Economic Position of Women in Companies.” She said that, since 2016, NIS has been a signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Initiative and that, as a company employing over 10,000 people in Serbia alone, it believes that it has additional responsibility over other employers, and wants to positively influence other business entities and the local community. “We are currently focusing on the popularization of technical science among women and girls in the country, as this is about creating equal opportunities for all. If, through this, we are able to achieve equal opportunities for – and presence of – women, then no treatment as a special and weaker category will be needed, as it should be. This year, NIS has welcomed the first generation of young women who are educated as operators on drilling installations and this is the first time in the history of the oil industry that women will be working at such plants,” Nataša Stamenković said. Students of the Technical School in Zrenjanin on the practice in NIS In addition, the NIS Human Resources Director said that the company also provides many other benefits facilitating the empowerment of women employees in the company. In addition to the representative of NIS, contributors to the panel discussion included Sanja Popović Pantić, President of the Association of Business Women in Serbia, Jelena Sekulić from UN WOMEN in Serbia, Jovana Mehandžić Đurđić, Sustainable Development Manager for Ikea in Southeast Europe, as well as Tijana Koprivica, Director for Sustainable Business at Delta Holding. The panel discussion’s participants jointly concluded that sustainable business is not possible without gender equality and that, therefore, it is necessary, among other things, to strengthen the role of women in companies, to economically empower entrepreneurs, to highlight examples of successful businesswomen, and to promote their professional development.
