{"id":448916,"date":"2020-11-07T15:28:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-07T15:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=448916"},"modified":"2020-11-07T16:03:15","modified_gmt":"2020-11-07T16:03:15","slug":"a-society-where-men-and-women-were-never-treated-as-equals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/a-society-where-men-and-women-were-never-treated-as-equals\/","title":{"rendered":"A society where men and women were never treated as equals"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 5<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

The phenomenon of gender inequality in the Republic of Moldova causes a state budget loss of about 39 billion lei<\/span>. “If economic inequalities between men and women were eliminated, the country\u2019s GDP would grow by up to 20%,”<\/em> is claimed in the study<\/a> “Economic Cost of Gender Inequalities in the Republic of Moldova”<\/strong><\/em> conducted by Expert-Grup<\/strong> in partnership with the Women’s Law Centre and with the financial support of Sweden.<\/p>\n

Women are not helped to overcome their main challenge.<\/span><\/h4>\n

The Expert-Grup study emphasized that women have to face difficulties in getting back to work after giving birth due to “the design of relevant policies, shortage of quality nursery services, inflexible attitude of employers, as well as tradition, cultural peculiarities and gender prejudices that determine women to give up on their professional activity.”<\/em><\/p>\n

According to the authors of the study, there are no legal provisions that would motivate men and women to share the childcare leave<\/span>. There are extremely few nurseries available and the decision to use nursery services face judgement and social pressure in Moldova. That forces women to give up on their professional career, to work less, to be less productive than men.<\/p>\n

“In our culture, mothers who take their little children to a nursery are viewed as bad mothers. I sent my elder child aged 1 year and 8 months to a nursery in another settlement, because I started to work, and the majority of the relatives criticised me for that. “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

The figures from the National Social Insurance House<\/strong> presented that there are 5.5 times fewer fathers<\/span> than mothers who took partially paid childcare leave and were receiving monthly childcare allowance, as of 1 January 2020.<\/p>\n

Moreover, in 2019, the Republic of Moldova had only two nurseries<\/span> (for children aged 1-2 years) and both of them were located in the urban area. There were 829 nursery-kindergartens with 110 951 children enrolled.<\/p>\n

\n

“Gender inequality hinders the progress of any society as it restricts the opportunities of half of its population. When women are prevented from reaching their maximum potential, that very same potential is lost for the entire society,”<\/em> said<\/a> Virginia Bilici<\/strong>, Program Coordinator at the Embassy of Sweden in the Republic of Moldova.<\/p>\n

Women work more, but earn less.<\/span><\/h4>\n

It was estimated that, at the global level, women do 3 times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men<\/span>. “Rising demand for care in the context of the COVID-19 crisis and response will likely deepen already existing inequalities in the gender division of labour, placing\u00a0 disproportionate burden on women and girls,”<\/em>\u00a0said the UN Women<\/strong> report<\/a> on COVID-19 and Care Economy.<\/p>\n

Svetlana Andries<\/strong>, Coordinator of UN Women Moldova programs, mentioned<\/a> that the COVID-19 pandemic has created disparities that affect women even more, taking into consideration that Moldovan women already had a double amount of tasks to perform before the pandemic. The situation is even worse in the case of mothers with several children, as they have to take on additional roles of educators or teachers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the Republic of Moldova, the biggest issues related to the gender gap are related to patriarchal attitudes, which limit educational choices and employment options for women, mostly unrecorded and undeclared discriminatory practices, unequal sharing of work and family responsibilities, as well as stigmas of being weak or dependant on men.<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0\u201cMen and gender equality in the Republic of Moldova\u201d<\/em><\/strong> conducted by Women\u2019s Law Center\u00a0<\/strong> and Center for Investigation and Consultation \u201cSocioPolis\u201d<\/strong>, cooking, cleaning and laundry are merely performed by women in Moldova.<\/p>\n

5.9% of fathers declared that they were never involved in childcare, 18.9% \u2013 in cooking, 29.6% \u2013 in cleaning and 44.9% \u2013 in laundry.<\/span><\/p>\n

See also:<\/strong> Talking about gender equality on International Women\u2019s Day<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

At the same time, men’s salary was 14.4% higher<\/span> as compared to the average salary of women in 2019, according the data<\/a> provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Women with children had 20.4% less paid economic activities than women without children and 16.4% less than men with children.<\/p>\n

\n

All over the world, women are paid, on average, 16% less than men and only 1 in 4 managers are women, as the 2020 UN Women<\/strong> Report<\/a> on Gender Equality presented. Still, Moldova is among the countries with relatively low differences in income between genders. The Global Gender Gap Report<\/a><\/strong> stated that, the country has closed 74.9% of its gender pay gap, along with Slovenia (80.9%) and Lithuania (76.3%).<\/p>\n

Experts claim that things could change in the future if the family and school education would focus on gender equality, girls being encouraged and motivated to strive for key positions, just as men, and the boundaries between men and women professions and\/or activities would be erased from a very young age of children. Also, women would need to encourage their partners to share more of the household tasks.<\/p>\n

Women skills in STEM industries are very often underestimated.<\/span><\/h4>\n

When asked about which fields they want a career in, the girls participating in a study<\/a> conducted by UN Women Moldova<\/strong>, Girls Go IT and the Government of Sweden, through Magenta Consulting, named the following:<\/p>\n