The global COVID-19 pandemic, although it started as a health crisis, resulted in major repercussions on the social protection and assistance system, causing large disruptions in economic activity and limiting social life to dangerous levels. The pandemic had a detrimental impact on women living in Moldova, who even before the pandemic faced several inequalities that limited their opportunities for social, economic, and political participation, inequalities that are generated by gender stereotypes that became even more evident during the pandemic, says a study conducted by UN Women Moldova in cooperation with UNECE, IPN reports.
The study “Childcare, Women's employment and the impact of COVID-19: The case of Moldova” looks at the impact of the pandemic on Moldovan women, specifically, the changes that have taken place in the labor market and to what extent did they affect women’s employment and welfare.
“The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection is involved in the development of a mechanism for subsidizing jobs. It goes to the possibility of subsidizing the period during which the employees will stay at home to look after children if schools are closed. The Labor Code was amended to stipulate the salary earners’ right to benefit from days off to stay with the child if schools are closed. One of the parents can use this right. We estimate these will be primarily women,” Minister Marcel Spatari stated in the launch of the study.
“The crisis caused by the pandemic affected men and women in a different way. Most of the persons who lost their jobs during the pandemic are female. Primarily the women took unpaid leave to look after children when schools and kindergartens were closed. This shows that we need to implement concrete mechanisms to support the male and female employees with children. The UN Moldova Team commits itself to further analyze the effects of COVID-19 on the inhabitants of the Republic of Moldova and to contribute to gender-sensitive post-COVID recovery,” said Simon Springett, UN Moldova Resident Coordinator.
Adam Amberg, Head of the Swedish Development at the Embassy of Sweden in Moldova, noted that gender inequalities were aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. “To support women in the Republic of Moldova, national mechanisms should be worked out, gender based discrimination should be eliminated from the labor market and the partnerships existing with civil society organizations should be continued. The study contains recommendations for alleviating the impact of the pandemic on women and we hope that they will be also put into practice,” stated Adam Amberg.
“The report is a joint interregional effort of UNECE and UN Women and covers the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, focusing on the care economy. The pandemic considerably increased the volume of unpaid childcare activity and this activity is not recognized. It is underestimated, is not redistributed and is primarily done by women. That’s why it is important to discuss this aspect, to see how the care economy can be introduced into the post COVID-19 economic recovery efforts,” said UN Women Moldova Country Representative Dominika Stojanoska.
Study author Liliana Palihovici, who heads “Institutum Virtutes Civilis”, came up with recommendations. “To change the situation, we must ensure the use of gender sensitivity when working out public policies and improve the regulatory framework for financing the care system and development of crèche services in urban and rural areas, and must also launch mechanisms for encouraging the business community to invest in the childcare system,” stated Liliana Palihovici.
