The women mayors want representation quotas of minimum 40% for each gender in Parliament, Government and the lists of candidates for elections. They also want a maximum quota of three representatives of one gender per each five consecutive candidates on the election lists, with the parties that do not obey these norms to be refused registration as election runners. A resolution to this effect was adopted in the National Forum of Women Mayors entitled “Women demand quotas, equality, representation”, IPN reports.
The resolution also demands instituting paternity leave of 14 days granted during the first 56 days of the birth of the child, working out and implementing programs to eliminate gender stereotypes, empowering the women and promoting them to executive posts, strengthening the role of women in political parties, ensuring gender equality in the work of parties and optimizing the public policies so as to ensure gender equality.
Mayor of Budesti Nina Costiuc said the resolution was sent to all the political parties. “By our success, by our model of managing settlements, we showed that the women have the same right to govern as the men,” she stated.
Attending the event, Head of Parliament Igor Corman said that there are 18 women MPs and six women ministers in Moldova. As the representative of the Democratic Party, he announced that the party’s list of candidates includes 36 women, five of whom are among the top 20 candidates. “The representation quota is not enough. It is probably more important to have conditions in the country for the women to be able to become actively involved in the public and political life. When speaking about conditions, I mean salaries, growth opportunities and others,” stated Igor Corman.
Prime Minister Iurie Leanca expressed a similar position. “I think we should refer not to figures, but rather to substance. We should behave by a certain logic,” he said, noting that gender equality is an objective that cannot be easily achieved. “Strengthening the woman’s role in society is a process. We cannot modify certain realities and mentalities. We will not change the situation overnight by resolutions only.”
The National Forum of Women Mayors “Women demand quotas, equality, representation” was held on October 7-8 within the program “Women in Politics in Moldova” that is implemented by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).
