Women's representation in Parliament decreased despite efforts to improve gender equality

Women represent only one-fifth in the current Parliament, despite promises by many parties to take into account the principle of gender equality when selecting candidates. Women's representation in Parliament dropped even in spite of civil society's efforts to promote gender equality. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, the female MPs in the current legislature said that, regretfully, the perceptions of women as housewives prevail over the model of a politically-active woman that participates in decision-making. This happens even if women are perceived to be more responsible and polite, and less corrupt. [Liberal MP Corina Fusu] says this happens because women in Moldova are not perceived as leaders, as persons who can make decisions on a local or national level. “There is much work to do in this field, in order to change the mentality of society, of both men and women. Moldovan society wants modernization, we seek to join Europe, but in Europe the situation with gender equality has been improved long ago”, says Corina Fusu. For the local elections this spring, thinks Corina Fusu, each party should insistently recommend and promote women for mayor's and local councilor's posts. The International Republican Institute will organize seminars for all the political parties to advocate this initiative. [Democrat MP Valentina Buliga] says it is good that a woman holds the post of deputy head of Parliament and another woman chairs the parliamentary Commission for environment and climate change. “This is just the start of the legislature. We still need to adjust the legal framework on gender equality, to adopt the budget while paying attention to the gender dimension. We work every day to ensure respect for the rights and equal opportunities for both men and women in Moldova”, says Valentina Buliga. She added that a Council of female MPs is expected to be created as an instrument for the identification of solutions to the problems faced by Moldovan society. According to Valentina Buliga, the Women's Council should probably be formed with the the beginning of the Parliament's proper session. [Liberal Democrat MP Liliana Palihovici, Deputy Speaker of Parliament,] says the promotion of equal opportunities should remain an imperative in society, because this issue has been neglected for too long. “This should happen not only in Parliament. We must attain equality of chances in all the fields of participation to the same extent like men”. According to Liliana Palihovici, in 2011 efforts will be made to obtain the endorsement of all the parliamentary factions for an amendment to the Election Code, which would impose a mandatory 30% quota for women on electoral slates. Liliana Palihovici thinks that women are more careful, more persevering in working on a project, more creative and resourceful, and deserve to be elected, no less than men. [Communist MP Galina Balmos] says women are looking to gender equality improvements. “I consider that in order to achieve this goal we will work in the next half a year so that all the colleagues can participate more actively in the political life”. Galina Blamos says that it is quite difficult for a woman to enter and stay in politics, because often it implies sacrifices related to family and other things that women hold sacred. “When you become a politician, frailty appears in the personal life and in the good reputation of the family. Even if you are a honest politician, you are not protected from personal attacks in campaigns. Women tend to avoid these things, so perhaps this is the reason why they prefer to stay out of politics”, says Galina Balmos. [Alexei Buzu, Partnership for Development project manager,] says that we can see some regress in gender representation, despite sustained efforts by civil society to persuade parties into offering more chances to women to find themselves on electoral lists. A number of NGOs, including the Partnership for Development Center, have launched some projects to promote women's participation in the political life, but they can't be sufficient if there is no openness on the part of the political parties. One problem is that the percentage of female candidates on electoral lists is traditionally low, and another issue is that the position of women on these lists is less favorable compared to male candidates. For example, in 2009, while the proportion of women on the Communists' ticket was greater than in the previous elections, the proportion of women in the democratic parties was the same, but this time the women were placed toward the end of the list. “The combination of these two factors determined a poorer representation of women in Parliament”, said Alexei Buzu. Speaking about the Women's Council, Alexei Buzu remarked that it is commendable that while the leaders of the Alliance were engrossed in protracted negotiations, the female party members managed to overcome the narrow party interests and decided to cooperate. If this effort catches on, it will be a success and an example for the political leaders, thinks Alexei Buzu. *** In the Moldovan Parliament there are 19 women out of the total 101 parliamentarians: 3 representing the Liberal Democratic Party, 2 representing the Liberal Party, and 2 from the Democratic Party. The Communist Party's faction has 12 female MPs, compared to 20 in the previous parliament.