The women in Moldova still avoid to report cases of discrimination on grounds of sex at work. Experts say the perception that the women should not hold particular posts because they are inferior to the men persists in Moldovan society. The Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Insurance of Equality reported a case of discrimination against a woman who wanted to work in the IT sector, IPN reports, quoting a report of “Promo-LEX” Association.
The woman is an IT specialist. In the summer of 2015 she was looking for a job and applied for a number of vacancies, including that of system administrator at a company. The announcement about the vacancy didn’t contain details about specific sex requirements. As she didn’t get an answer, the woman contacted the employing company to find out details. She was invited to a formal interview and was then told that she will be contacted. As she was ignored again, she phoned the employer and found out that the vacancy was filled. The employer argued that they needed a man for the given post and thus could not employ a woman.
In April 2016, the Council established that the facts described in the applicant’s complaint represented discrimination at work. According to the lawyer of “Promo-LEX” Dumitru Sliusarenco, Moldovan society still considers that the women are not suitable for particular jobs because they are inferior to the men. “Regretfully, many women tacitly accept such an attitude and do not oppose discrimination at work. It is very important not to tolerate cases of discrimination. This will contribute to increasing the employment rate among women, to improving the situation of women on the labor market and to eliminating differences between males and females,” he stated.
According to a study of the gender pay gap conducted by the Partnership for Development Center, the average salary of the men is by 12.4% higher than the average salary of the women. The pay gap is like an invisible tax paid by 93.63% of the women working in Moldova’s economy. In 2014, the annual losses sustained by women owing to the pay gap came to 7,620 lei each. A similar study by the Women’s Law Center shows that 90.5% of the men and 81.5% of the women consider that doing housework is more important for a woman.
