MATCHING GENDER AND SECURITY DATA WITH PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS AND EXPECTATIONS Despite the many instances of official recognition and progress made, the equality between women and men, girls and boys in daily life is far from becoming a reality. In practice, women and men, girls and boys do not enjoy neither the same rights, nor same opportunities. Social, political, economic, and cultural inequalities persist in the security sector in Albania, as part of the common denominator for the whole society with no sectors excluded. These inequalities are the result of some social notions built upon the many stereotypes present in family, education, culture, means of communication, in the labour market and work environment, and generally on the way the society is organized. When the UNSCR 1325 7F 8 was adopted in 31 October 2000, Albania had completed the first generation of security sector reforms. It included the establishment of new security and defence institutions, structures, and chains of responsibility. The first major transformation of the security and defence strategy was the democratization and professionalization of the security sector. The country also instituted basic principles and structures for the oversight and civilian control of the security and defence sector, empowered the parliament to oversee and approve the sector’s budgets and made attempts for the civilianization of security and defence sector bureaucracies. Civilianization consisted of staffing security ministries with civilians, including women, who would design and implement security policies. In this way, Albania made progress in reforming its security sector, including the police, army, intelligence, and other security institutions, in making the security sector better able to meet its contemporary obligations and merge them into the overall national democratization agenda. This progress culminated with the full membership of Albania in NATO in 2009. The greater leap in gender equality was made in 2019 with the enforcement of new and specific policies and legislation related to the national armed forces. Data retrieved from the UNDP gender inequality index 8F 9 show that Albania noted a 50% improvement in scores from 0.334 in 2019 to 0.181 in 2020, ranking the country 69 th in the world. 8 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325(2000), S/RES/1325(2000) S/RES/1325(2000)(undocs.org) N0072018.pdf(un.org) 9 Gender Inequality Index| Human Development Reports(undp.org) 11