Women Empowerment in Albania: Achievements and Shortcomings Throughout the Years

The activity and the commitment of the Albanian state to ensure gender equality and empowerment of women as most discriminated subjects in the domains of politics, economy, social, cultural and civic society in Albania, as a result of the traditional society and the countries’ history, is a serotinous process and only during the late 90s occurs the first legal change. This paper analyses the process of ensuring gender quota, despite different interpretations and singularities in the countries where it is applied and its implementation in Albania. In the Albanian context it means only the participation of no less than 30% of women in the executive, legislative and local governance. Application of this quota in the last parliamentary elections resulted partly successful but preliminary lists of the upcoming local elections, once again show the imbalance that exists in the ratio of female representation in politics. This paper aims to recommend how to improve and modernize the political reality in Albania through participation of Albanian women in active politics. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n2p263