WOMEN'S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA. The women's economic profile

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1 WOMEN'S ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA From a gender-specific perspective, both vertical and horizontal job segregation can be distinguished. Averagely speaking, women and men are working in quite different fields and men are those who, most of the times, hold leadership positions, thus perpetuating the pyramidal power distribution model. The labor market is facing, besides the salary discrepancies, the glass ceiling phenomenon which hinders or slows down the advancement of women (or, more rarely, of men), as well as the sexual harassment and the symbolic promotion to senior management positions of some minorities - women or men, only for the sake of good order and for the purpose of successfully passing the evaluations. The women's economic profile According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of resident population of the Republic of Moldova as of January 1, 2015 was 3,555.2 thousand people, of whom 51.9 % were women and 48.1% were men. In 2014, Moldova recorded an economically active population of 1,232,400 people, 49.2% of whom were women. The group of employed women represents 32% of the country s population and the peculiarities of this group should be analyzed through the economic and social indicators. Just like many other countries from the region, Moldova faces the population aging phenomenon. The population aging coefficient among men is lower compared to the one of women.

2 Figure 1.1: The population aging coefficient at the beginning of the year, by sexes Source: The population aging coefficient, The difference between the groups is of 5.4 percentage points (figure 1.1). [1] The aging of women will have a significant impact on the economic and social life, including healthcare, social assistance, recreation, but also on the economic development of the country. The aging of the population, especially of women, and the gender composition will have some direct effects on the state policies and programs. The state will have to put a greater emphasis on meeting the financial, health and social care needs, imposed by an older population. Since 2008, the active population number has decreased. The number of economically active women from Moldova decreased from 622,300 in 2008 to 588,300 in [2] Moreover, the participation of women into the labor market varies depending on their age. The most active women are the ones between the ages of 25 and 49. The low rate among the younger or the older ones is explained by the fact that the first-mentioned are engaged in the educational system or are in reproductive or childcare periods, while the latter ones have reduced working capacity because of their poor health or have reached the retirement age (figure 1.2). [3] 2

3 Figure 1.2: Employed population aged 15 years and over, by age and sex groups Source: Employed population of 15 years and older, by age, sex and economic sectors, The female employment rate factor depends on whether they have children or not. Thus, the employment rate of women aged years without children constitutes 60.22%. The employment rate of women with children drops to 39.78%. It is also noted that the men with at least one child have an employment rate higher than the women (figure 1.3). [4] Figure 1.3: Employment rate of people aged years depending on residence, number of dependent children (0-6 years) and sexes Source: Employment rate of people aged years depending on residence, number of dependent children (0-6 years) and sexes Over the last 15 years, Moldova has recorded a considerable growth trend both in the number of active women as well as employed women with higher education. This evolution, contrary to the general trend of employed population reduction, has caused significant structural changes. Therefore, the share of employed women with higher education increased from 12% in 2000 to 27% in 2014, especially due to the transfer of the share of women with secondary specialized education or secondary vocational education. 3

4 This structural change may be interpreted as a trend of improving job quality, but also due to the educational policies promoted over the recent years. The figure 1.4 [5] shows the relationship between the Moldovan women and the labor market, by education level, during the last 10 years. Figure 1.4: Female employment rates, by education levels and years Source: Employed population by education levels and years In 2014, nearly 27% of all employed women had higher education, 33 % had secondary specialized and professional/vocational education, and the remaining 40% had secondary, postsecondary or general secondary education. Only 2,900 of employed women (0.5%) had primary or no education at all. The figures also show that the girls opt more for secondary specialized education while the boys choose the secondary vocational education. Universities are graduated from by more women than men. [5] Informal employment of women on the labor market According to a study conducted by the International Labour Organization [6], the informal female employment rate in Moldova (employment in terms of job and working conditions) is relatively close to the one of males, compared to other countries where there is a large difference between the employment rates for women and men such as Albania, Armenia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The low informal female employment rate in these countries denotes the 4

5 employment risk reduction in conditions that are not fully covered by labor laws and, likewise, the existence of some restrictions as regards the unsafe working conditions, as well as better education levels among women, which give them an agreeable status on the labor market. The high rate of informal employment for women and men in the Republic of Moldova is caused by the multitude of retail activities performed by the employed population, but also by the activities carried out within the private households of the population producing goods for their own consumption, amounting to 105 thousand people, of whom 54.6 thousand are women, according to the NBS data. On the one hand, we note that the informal employment of women is mostly connected with the agricultural sector, hotel services and households, and on the other hand, we observe that the decline in the agricultural sector and the lack of the hotel industry in the rural region causes an uncontrolled migration of women and men in the urban areas for temporary or long-term informal employment purposes. The rural employment rate is lower than the urban one, because of the low concentration of industrial facilities and public services in the rural areas. Given the fact that the settlement of the social problems from the rural areas depends largely on the links with the urban areas as regards the major providers of social services, training, education and healthcare, the highest concentration of labor force from the rural areas is informally employed in suburbs and urban areas. The expansion or creation of small and medium enterprises in rural areas and/or in the suburbs would turn this informal employment into an informal sector employment, representing employment in terms of production units (enterprises) and thus reducing the internal migration flows. Broadly speaking, the formal and informal employment of women in the rural areas is possible only under conditions where public transportation to urban areas is provided and the access to social services that would provide and guarantee a minimum of social protection to their family members: children, elderly, people with disabilities, is ensured. Otherwise, when the access to such services is limited, the women are forced to spend more time at home, working within their own households and taking care of their families. Usually, considering the poor activity of the rural infrastructure, the women prefer to work near their homes and households, and these occupations are concentrated mostly in the agricultural sector and in the manufacturing industry, which represents, above all, a seasonal employment. 5

6 Commonly, informal employment refers to all informal jobs, regardless of whether they are carried out within formal sector enterprises, informal sector enterprises or private households. Although the informal sector is a relatively new concept used in the employment statistics, we can ascertain the existence of some substantial factors regarding the informal employment. The work both seasonal or performed within the local households represents a legal economic activity, but usually, deliberately hidden from the public authorities, for the purpose of avoiding payment of social contributions and taxes (for example VAT), shirking a series of labor protection standards and rules and of course, fulfilling certain obligations towards the employees, which is absolutely important for women. Under these circumstances, the development of reforms regarding workforce requalification, especially in the rural areas and the strategic development of the entrepreneurship represent an essential moment in addressing the informal employment situation, especially among women. The women at risk of poverty are also often exposed to the risk of being involved into informal activities, whereas the creation of local infrastructure conditions for the small business development would include women into the workforce, providing them with the essential revenues necessary for a decent living at their place of residence and access to social security services. As compared with the informal employment, the formal one is represented mainly by more active women. Nevertheless, 2010 recorded a decrease of 14.3 thousand formally employed women as compared to The causes of this decline in employment could be both the interest rate cuts within enterprises, as well as the reduced demand for investment, a fact that would cause a reduction of employees, as well as the increasing number of pensionable women within enterprises. Moreover, a cause would be even the new generation of specialists that can not fulfill their work obligations because of their knowledge incompatibility with the actual demand on the labor market. [6] 2.3 Involvement of women into entrepreneurial activities Just like in many countries of the region, Moldova has no clear and well-formulated definitions for the female entrepreneurs term and no estimations of what is the share of the female entrepreneurship in the total entrepreneurial activity. The entrepreneurship in our country represents a very dynamic area. Moldova, being a state with a transitional or a developing economy based on the market economy principles, experiences the emergence of a large number of new businesses, on the one hand, and the cancellation of a considerable number of companies from the register or suspension and interruption of their activities for various reasons, on the other hand. 6

7 As compared with other countries from the region, the female entrepreneurship from the Republic of Moldova is growing rapidly and is gaining more and more ground at all structural levels and residence areas. According to the analysis carried out in 2009 by Tatiana Batuschina, of the International Centre for Advancement of Women in Business, the businesses that are run by women are concentrated in urban areas, 65% being registered in Chisinau. In the capital city, for example, the concentration of companies per 1,000 inhabitants is 36, while in the rural areas there are localities with up to four companies. This indicator suggests that more attention should be paid to the rural development and especially to the entrepreneurial development, including the female one. It is necessary to implement certain programs geared towards promoting entrepreneurship within villages, as well as priority areas characterized by a deficiency of services and production. According to the State Registration Chamber, currently in Moldova there are registered over 52 thousand small and medium enterprises that ensure the employment of approximately 292 thousand people. If we relate the results obtained following the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey, within which 360 companies from Moldova were interviewed and was found out that 47.5% of the companies were co-owned by women and 25.7% were managed by women [23], we can say that to the creation of every 2 nd SME in Moldova participates a woman. These data exceed the Eastern Europe and Central Asia average rate (30.9 % and respectively 18.7%), and approximately every 3 rd SME is majority-owned by a woman (28.5%) as compared to the average rate from the region (12.2%). [7] The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Study (2014) points out that the aggregated indicators regarding the entrepreneurial framework conditions are the following: financial support, governmental policies, governmental - regulatory policies, governmental programs, primary and secondary education, higher education, commercial infrastructure, market changing, market penetration barriers, physical infrastructure, cultural and social norms. Likewise, the European Commission [8] suggests that a potential starting point for a solid female entrepreneurship can be the identification of some funding sources necessary to secure their investments. One securing solution could be generated through the creation of several support 7

8 networks of and for women entrepreneurs or with entrepreneurial potential, which can be joined by other entities as well (institutions, NGOs). The 2013 BEEPS Survey showed that the companies led by women are applying for loans more frequently 27.6 % of companies owned by women, as compared to 25.4% of companies owned by men [6]; the survey also noticed significant differences as regards the rejection of loan applications depending on the company s owner or manager gender, 28.1% in the case of the companies run by women and 19.7 % in the case of the ones run by men. [7] By analyzing the statistical data of a group of banks [9], we can observe that the share of women that open up bank deposits as individuals exceeds the one of men by 4.2%, this significant difference can be explained by the fact that in Moldova women outnumber men by 3.8%. Moreover, the number of employed women with higher education is 5% higher than that of men. Likewise, we note that twice fewer women than men decide to invest into the entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, the share of women who take investment credits of the total account holders represents 0.26%, compared to the one of men, which is equal to 0.52%. The share of women holding a credit card exceeds by 15% the one of men. This is due to the tendency of women to spend more on consumption needs, thus the share of women taking consumer credits exceeds that of men by 6.05%. Men are more oriented towards accumulating long-term assets, thus are taking credits for real estate and entrepreneurial investment purposes. In conclusion, the data processed by the referred banks show that women are predominantly opting for operational financial resources, registering the highest number of bank cards and consumption credits as individuals, contrary to men, who are oriented towards long-term asset accumulation, registering the highest number of credits for real estate and entrepreneurial investment purposes. Reconciliation of family and professional life of women from the Republic of Moldova The reconciliation of family and professional life represents a matter of great interest both for women and men. The difficulties faced by women, especially mothers, while looking for and trying to maintain a paid job, the stereotypes by which is perpetuated the idea that only women are 8

9 responsible for caring the family as well as the cultural expectations towards men as being the only breadwinners of the family are matters that aggravate the equality between women and men. The involvement of men in balancing their personal and professional lives represents an essential but also challenging problem. Making work schedules more flexible plays an important role in keeping the working mothers on the labor market. The difficulties faced by the young parents in harmonizing the time dedicated to work and the one devoted to family have negative repercussions on meeting the formal employment obligations, causing delays at work, departures before the end of the working day, absenteeism, etc. These negative effects affect men and women to the same extent. The single-parent families, predominantly maintained by women, face more severe problems while interweaving the professional life with the family and private one. The problems depend on the children's ages, they are more acute when children are smaller and do not disappear along with their inclusion into the educational system. Another important variable is the number of children within the family, being well known the fact that each individual child needs attention and care from both parents. Another factor worth taking into consideration is the time that people dedicate to their work as compared to the one spent on carrying out domestic activities, and last but not least, it is very important if the working program is a full-time or a part-time one, since the temporal structure of the working day (continuous or sequential) affects in a decisive manner the family and labour-related matters. The involvement of men into the family responsibilities and accomplishment of certain domestic duties is considered imperative by the vast majority, regardless of whether the woman has a job or not. Even though there is a certain perception on the fact that the family responsibilities should be shared, this does not mean that it is actually put into practice. There are large discrepancies between the ways in which the two partners perceive their involvement into performing some domestic tasks and caring for children (women believe that they are more indebted to perform certain domestic tasks, while men believe that these tasks are to be done together, which results in different valuations. Men must also assume certain responsibilities associated with caring for children or sick relatives. Although the Moldovan women have a pretty loaded working program, they manage to do unpaid activities as well. As compared with the OECD countries, where women devote on average 2.5 hours a day to the unpaid work, in Moldova, most of the unpaid work is performed by women 9

10 (66% of total time allocated to work is unpaid) and it is about 2 times higher, they spend 4.9 hours per day doing unpaid work while the men only 2.8 hours per day (figure 1.5.) [8] Fig. 1.5 Average duration of daily paid and household work by sexes and activities Source: NBS A greater gender equality valorization level can be observed among the younger generations than the older ones. This also depends on the educational level of both men and women. The change of gender roles within the family should not be merely a result of an explicit negotiation process between the partners but also an effect of the profound and multiple social transformations that are likely to redefine and condition the gender roles negotiation context. Below there are given some measures aimed at contributing to the family and professional life reconciliation [10]: increasing the number of kindergartens and school canteens with extended and flexible programs for boys and girls aged up to 3 years inclusively; adjusting the working schedules to the ones of schools and kindergartens; providing alternative care for dependent family members who need assistance, extending the aid at home, creating daycare centers; stimulating young fathers to take paternity leave, a legal instrument that creates the necessary prerequisites for an active participation of the father in caring for the newborn baby; 10

11 conducting campaigns meant to change attitudes on the necessity to distribute in a balanced way the domestic roles and responsibilities between the two partners. The benefits enjoyed by the employer implementing policies aimed at reconciling the family and professional life are as follows: increased labor productivity and employees' professional satisfaction; improved image of the company/corporation; better recruitment of employees; reduced absenteeism; lower costs generated by health problems of employees; more satisfied clients; increased employee involvement and loyalty towards the company. The benefits enjoyed by the employee participating in policies aimed at reconciling the family and professional life are as follows: better quality of life; career breakthroughs and greater job satisfaction; better physical and mental health; higher incomes and more related benefits; more personal time. For a better understanding of how to implement the conciliation strategies, the examples of other countries that have gone through this process such as Italy, Spain and France can be analyzed. Italy is one of the first countries that have taken measures meant to contribute to changing work patterns within the locally-operating institutions. The measures aimed at making the working programs more flexible within the companies with less than 50 employees, according to art. 9 of the Law No. 53/200, consist in providing the enterprises that are promoting positive actions geared towards working time flexibility with subsidies. Below are listed some examples of positive actions (these measur es are addressed mainly to families with children up to 8 years) [11 page 8]: part-time contracts; 11

12 training of employees when returning to work (taking into account the adjustment difficulties as a result of the progress made within the employment sphere); replacement of employees on leave with temporary employees, who shall benefit from the advantages provided for the replacement of the absent employees: either the simultaneous presence of two employees at the beginning of the contract term (if so provided for in the collective agreement), or the reduction of taxes by 50% ; promulgation of territorial plans in relation to urban services schedules; implementation of the hourly banks allowing the recovery of overtime through hours of rest; There are some instruments contributing to the formation of a different temporality culture such as the introduction of mentoring/tutorship in relation to the career and family responsibilities; this should be addressed equally to women and men, so as to prevent the appearance of another women segregation itinerary; Another instrument is the creation of new social services related to childcare as the institutions where children are looked after several hours a day and which allow a reduction of costs in relation to the traditional nurseries. In Spain, the majority of employers are offering 6 extra vacation days, which are added to the annual leave of 24 days. The legislation provides for a particular part-time contract, which allows the reduction of the employee s working time by 50% and the simultaneous hiring of an unemployed person; Law No. 39/1999 promotes the reconciliation of the family and professional life among male and female employees. It provides the granting of leaves for assisting distressed relatives; providing fathers with the permits for breastfeeding babies; reducing tax contributions for the companies that hire new persons with a view to replacing the temporarily absent employees. [11, page 9] The French legislation makes a clear distinction between the employed persons and the independent workers. In 2000, the Aubry law has set a 35-hour working week policy for the companies with less than 20 employees; the law provided subsidies to businesses reducing by 10% the duration of the working time and hiring by 6% more employees. 12

13 It also provided for a parental education allowance that is given to the parents who decide to interrupt their working activity or pursue a part-time occupation; an allowance for hiring a caregiver, granted regardless of the family's financial situation; an allowance for the care of a child under 6 years old, paid to families employing one or more persons to take care of the child; the diversification of the childcare modalities. [11, page 11] 13

14 BIBLIOGRAPHY [1] Population aging coefficient, [2] +ocupata+de+15+ani+si+peste%2c+pe+grupe+de+virsta%2c+sectoare++economice+si+sexe%2c &path=../Database/RO/GEN/ECO/&lang=1 [3] Employed population aged 15 and over, by age groups, economic sectors and sex, [4] Employment rate of people aged by residence, number of dependent children (aged 0-6), age and sex. [5] Employed population by level of education and age [6] A Comparative Overview of Informal Employment in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and Montenegro, ILO 2010, Emloyment_in_SEE.pdf [7] [8] National Bureau of Statistics, [9] imbatrinirii populatiei, [10] Parent roles and reconciliation of the family and professional life. A guide for current and future parents. Government of Romania. Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Protection and the Elderly. Division of Equal Opportunities between Women and Men. [11] Reconciliation of the family and personal life, National Agency for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men,