The interim head of Positive Slovenia (PS) Bratušek wrote on Friday that "Slovenian politics is no longer only a boys' game" and hailed past efforts of women who enabled Slovenia to have 32 female MPs in the 90-member parliament.

"We owe it to generations of women around the world and at home that we can work today and advance in our professions, get educated, freely decide on the birth of our children, wear trousers, vote in elections and get elected," Bratušek wrote.

She stressed that women must not forget the long path they have walked from obedient and disenfranchised caretakers of families to independent, creative and heard citizens, successful and responsible in their professions and private lives.

Bratušek added however that many social issues remain to be tackled, pointing out that women are still made to carry the full double burden of professional and domestic responsibilities.

These issues are expected to be addressed more seriously again by the government, as changes adopted on 27 February to the government act seen to give more prominence to gender equality within a renamed ministry.

The change comes after the outgoing government abolished in April last year the independent government Office for Equal Opportunities, transferring it onto the Labour, Family and Social Affairs Ministry as one of its services.

Sociologist Milica Antić Gaber has argued for the STA that the abolished office had already been a step back from the Office for Women's Policy, which was established in 1992 and "was responsible only to the prime minister".

It lost some of its symbolic power when it was renamed and when its tasks were expanded, while an even bigger blow came with its subordination to the ministry.

"It no longer has the role of overseeing the adoption of legislation or even of drawing up new legislation...It has lost touch with different organisations and groups active in civil society," Antić Gaber pointed out.