The paternal leave, without the loss of the job, is extremely important for ensuring gender equality in society. Galina Precup, deputy head of the Partnership for Development Center, told IPN that this kind of leave is not included in any international conventions so far, but its role cannot be neglected.

The experts says that it helps parents find a balance between their professional and family lives, and creates conditions for employees to have as many children as they want and when they want. The paternal leave also helps make the most out the female workforce in order to stimulate economic growth, prevent poverty in families, increase the financial sustainability of social protection services and improve the well-being of children during their first years of life.

Galina Precup adds that one of the social benefits of the paternal leave is that fathers participate more in rearing and taking care of children, which in turn helps the kids’ development and improves the dads’ psychological comfort. A consequence of this is an increase of the fertility rate, because studies show that when dads participate more in raising the children, families choose to have more kids. This is very important for Moldova, which has the lowest fertility rate by comparison to EU countries.

In addition to all this, the paternal leave contributes to fighting gender stereotypes in society and reducing the gender gap in unpaid labor. According to the expert, the paternal leave is a true harmonization with European standards, where almost half the member countries have paid paternal leave of 14 days or more.

According to recently adopted legislation, in Moldova dads can get a 14 day paid leave in the first 56 days after a child is born. The allowance cannot be lower than the person’s current salary and is paid from the Social Insurance Fund.