Moldovan women continue to be disadvantaged in social life

Women from the R. of Moldova continue to be significantly disadvantaged in what concerns the available opportunities for their participation in the social life, the data of the National Human Development Report 2006 shows. According to the report, the Human Development Index (HDI) estimates average performances per country, and do not refer to gender differences which sometimes are very big. In order to measure human development differences on the gender basis, UNDP uses 2 indicators: Gender-Related Development Index (GRDI) and Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). In the R. of Moldova GEM is also known as the Index of women participation in social life. GEM is an index reflecting the inequalities from the opportunities point of view in three key-domains: • political participation and decision making • economic participation • power over economic resources. The more the index approaches to 1, the more balanced is the society from the point of view of gender opportunities of participation in social life. According to the report, HDI changes similarly to GRDI. In the R. of Moldova the difference between these 2 indicators is insignificant: in 2005 HDI equaled 0.733, and GRDI – 0,732. In the case of GRDI, disadvantage of women in what concerns literacy rate and incomes compensated by their advantage in longevity and gross rate of education involvement. As a consequence of improvement women’s participation in the political life (increase in the number of parliamentary mandates held by women) and the power over economic resources (a more rapid growth of women’s income than men’s), GEM increased from 0.422 in 1997 to 0.564 in 2005.