Ensuring Women's Inequality-Free Inheritance: How the Campaign "How Much is My Share?" Is Breaking Gender Barriers

According to the Serbian Inheritance Law, all children have equal rights to their parents' property, but in almost 44 percent of cases sisters will leave their own share to their brothers, due to traditional norms and gender stereotypes surrounding the inheritance topic. To raise awareness of the importance of claiming rights on inheritance among Serbian women, and in society in general, Women’s Association of Kolubara District is implementing media campaign “How much is my share?” which has up to now reached around 3.5 million people online and offline - in TV shows, news and articles, not only in Serbia, but also in Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. Jelena Ružić, President of Women's Association of Kolubara district explains the importance of this campaign that is supported by UN Women, through project funded by European Union.

According to data of Women's Association of Kolubara District, women are excluded from the division of property in over 43% of cases, while men are excluded in only 0.5% of cases. With an aim to contribute to elimination of gender stereotypes and promote active role of women in heritage area, your organization started campaign in 2022 that will continue till august 2023. Why did you choose this topic?

In Serbia, it is considered that a female child will leave parents’ home by marriage and contribute to another family through her work and childbearing. As such, she should not take the family inheritance, which should remain in the possession of the male heir. Although the law treats male and female heirs in the same manner, customs are still stronger than the law and in almost half of the cases a female child will give up her inheritance in favor of her brother. The situation is even more dramatic when we look at the statistics of the rural area of Serbia, where only about 16% of women own real estate, and in the majority of cases that means plots smaller than 2 hectares. This affects almost all spheres of a woman's life.

What are the consequences of renouncing the heritage?

By excluding them from the line of heirs, women, in the long run, are becoming more exposed to poverty and consequently to domestic violence, since economic independence is one of the main factors that influence women’s decision to end the circle of violence. Moreover, a woman without assets will have a harder time starting her own business. Bank loan application will be rejected because she does not have assets to guarantee the repayment of the loan, etc. Also, Law on Social Protection in Serbia stipulates that a person who renounces his/hers inheritance does not have the right to social assistance in the period in which he/she could have supported himself if he/she had not renounced the property. And most women do not know about this. When they come to make a statement about inheritance, no one tells them what the consequences of them saying "I waive in favor of…” are. They do not know that in the future they would not be able to exercise their right to social assistance, if they needed it. They would find out about this fact at the center for social work when, often as a result of domestic violence, they come after leaving the abuser, and their request is refused.

This campaign informs, explains and sheds light to this important topic. What kind of public feedback did you get?

Women and inheritance rights was not something that was in focus in Serbian society and media coverage on these issues was weak and most often colored by sensationalism. After the launch of the campaign on social networks, we started getting numerous personal stories and confessions of women who have gone through the inheritance process or are expected to in the future, but are aware that family and society expect them to give up their property in favor of their brothers.

Campaign is not the only activity that Women's Association of Kolubara district implements. It provides free legal assistance to women who are in inheritance process, it founded the Coalition for Equal Inheritance, which gathers 15 organizations from all over Serbia that started national research on the impact of gender stereotypes on distribution of inheritance. Why are these activities important?

According to the data collected so far, over 95% of the interviewed women said that this topic is not sufficiently represented in the media and that they first heard about it through the campaign "How much is my share?" That is why it is important to write and talk about it. Moreover, we are doing our best and to increase the understanding of notaries and judges about the importance of pointing out the consequences of renouncing inheritance to the participants in the process, since only a small number of respondents said that they were informed about their rights, procedures and consequences of the sentence "I waive in favor of…”