Albania

Albania is a country in the Balkans in southeast Europe, and has a population of 3.17 million (2008). Many Albanians live overseas, in neighboring countries, Italy, the United States, and Australia. Albania has a birth rate of 15.1 per 1,000, and an infant mortality rate of 20.7 per 1,000 live births. The crude divorce rate in the country is 0.95 divorces per 1,000 marriages. Traditionally, the population in Albania since the 16th century has been largely Muslim, and the population today is officially regarded as 70 percent Muslim, with 20 percent Albanian Orthodox, and 10 percent Roman Catholic—the most famous Albanian being the Nobel laureate Mother Teresa from an Albanian family from nearby Skopje, in modern-day Macedonia.

Historically, the major role of women in Albanian society was that of a homemaker, and few had much opportunity to leave their native villages or towns. The English traveler Edith Durham visited Albania from the 1900s, and she found an intensely tribal society. In one case, a man told her that if he married a “writing woman” (i.e., one who could read and write), “that king would not fetch wood and water” for him. In 1918, the average family size was 4.6 persons in Tirana, and 3.8 in Durrës. Under King Zog, his six sisters were used as role models in Albanian society; the younger three never married. The period of the Italian occupation saw a small change in the role of women, and a tenth of the Communist partisans during World War II were reported to be women.

Social mobility was transformed during the period of Communist rule from 1944 until 1992, as was medical care; education became compulsory (and enforced) for all girls as well as boys. The Faculty of Medicine at Tirana University helped improve health care, and there was a widespread [Page 43]availability of midwifery services. With one of the highest literacy rates in the world (99 percent for women), better access to hospitals and midwives led to a dramatic fall in the infant mortality rate. In spite of this, women's participation in the country's government remained one of the lowest in Europe (around 6 percent). This increased after the end of Communism, and with the provision of even better health care, the infant mortality rate continues to be reduced. There have also been many programs to reduce the rates of domestic violence against women. Although the country's fertility rate has fallen from 4.4 in 1975 to 2.1 in 1999, it has been the highest in Europe on both occasions.