Women’s Participation in Political Decision-Making in Albania: Current Challenges and Expectations for the Future: The Case of Durrës and Tirana Regions

The gender index of 2020, is showing that Albania is placed under the European average with 60.4 points. On the other hand, Albania has been implementing for nearly ten years, the law on gender equity, where the participation of women up to 30% in the decision-making and executive bodies, is assured through the female quota system elections. As a result, the country today has a considerable level of women’s representation in political decision-making, like 30% in parliament, while in the government women mark the majority at 57%. In this paper, we aim to discover what are the challenges that women in politics are facing. Are they fulfilling the mission in terms of positive effects on the quality of democracy? What is missing? Hence, the study will focus, firstly on the steps taken on women’s participation in politics and relevant decision-making. The analysis will follow with the exploitation of the documents, such as laws, normative acts, and strategies on women’s contribution to decision-making. In addition, through the literature review, the study will focus on the reasons women should be equally represented in politics, and what is expected from them in terms of a qualitative democracy. Moreover, through the qualitative methodology, we have interviewed 12 women that are actively engaged in political decision-making, at the national and local levels, in Durrës and Tirana regions. With the interviews, we will try to explore the challenges, the contribution, the mission and the perceptions of women in politics. In the conclusion section, we will identify the good practices that helped the political career of women and some recommendations for future improvement.   Received: 05 May 2022 / Accepted: 16 May 2023 / Published: 20 May 2023