Croatia

Croatia is a country in southern Europe of about 4.5 million people, with a large coastline on the Adriatic Sea; it shares borders with Slovenia, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro. It was part of Yugoslavia (1918-91), and was the site of brutal fighting during the Croatian War of Independence of 1991-95 that resulted in high degrees of internal [Page 365]displacement. Croatia was also involved in the Balkan War of 1992-95, during which many women, including Croatians, were victims of rape.

The bell tower of the Cathedral of St. Duje. The church is the Catholic cathedral of Split, the largest Dalmatian city in Croatia.

Almost 90 percent of the population identify themselves as Croatians, and most people (87.8 percent) are Roman Catholic. Literacy is almost universal among both men (99.3 percent) and women (97.1 percent). Croatia is one of the wealthiest of the former Yugoslav republics; although its economy was badly damaged during the 1991-95 war and more recently from the global recession, it had a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of $17,600 in 2009. Income distribution is among the most even in the world, with a Gini Index of 29.0 and only 11 percent of the population living below the poverty line.

The World Economic Forum places Croatia in the middle third of countries with regard to gender equality, ranking 54th out of 134 countries. On a scale of 1 (perfect equality) to 0 (inequality), in 2009 Croatia was awarded an overall score of 0.6944, with scores of 0.6458 for economic participation and opportunity, 0.9946 for educational attainment, 0.9791 for health and survival, and 0.2300 for political empowerment. Croatia's gender gap has increased over the past several years: it was 0.721 in 2007 and 0.0697 in 2009. Save the Children ranks Croatia 26th among 43 developed countries on its Women's Index, 29th on its Mothers’ Index, and 35th on its Children's Index among 43 more developed countries. Croatian women are more likely than men to be enrolled in tertiary education and to be professional and technical workers. However, men constitute a majority (59 percent) of the faculty in tertiary education. Women are also less likely to be in the labor force, more likely to be unemployed, and earn about two-thirds of what a man earns for comparable work. Women hold 21 percent of the seats in Parliament and 24 percent of ministerial positions.

Croatia provides maternity leave; full salary is provided for 45 days before delivery and one year after. All births are attended by skilled personnel, and both the infant mortality and maternal rates are low at 5 out of 1,000 live births and 7 out of 100,000 live births respectively. Perhaps due in part to the male/female ratio of 0.93 (reflecting the recent wars), Croatian women tend to marry late and have small families; the mean age of marriage is 26 years and the fertility rate is 1.30 children per woman.