The vulnerability of rural women remains topical in Moldova. The access to medical services for women from rural areas is lower compared with the situation of women from urban areas, while over 19% of the rural women assess the state of health as bad or very bad. The data are contained in the profile of rural women developed by UN Women Moldova and the National Bureau of Statistics, IPN reports.

Women in rural areas suffer twice as much of chronic diseases, compared to women living in urban areas, such as osteoarticular diseases, diseases of the nervous system or tumors, and they require continuous treatment. A third of them give up going to the doctor, out of whom each fourth does so due to lack of money.

Even if the birth rate is higher in rural areas, the rural population decreases mainly because the people of working age, especially of over 25, leave the villages. Migration abroad, together with the concentration of trained young persons in towns, deepens the demographic decline in villages, with the small number of trained rural women compared with the number of trained urban women confirming this.

Women in rural areas have an average age of 39 years. There are 70 elderly women per each 100 women of working age. Less than half of the women aged 15 and over have a university degree, specialized or vocational education.

The most poverty affected are women living in rural areas and surviving out of their retirement pension and those without primary and secondary education. Out of ten working rural women, five work in agriculture, three in public administration, health and education, one in industry and one in the service sector.

The lack of access to infrastructure, in particular to the water supply and sewerage system, remains a challenge for the rural areas. This affects especially the women from villages, who are mainly concerned about housework. Special emphasis must be placed on the support for the empowerment and emancipation of rural women not only by providing information and enriching knowledge, but also by creating conditions of access to financial resources, recommend the authors of the study.