The women who stand together
examining the perspective of citizens in terms of the impact of civil society organisations on women's empowerment in the Republic of Moldova
Abstract
In the last decade, the Republic of Moldova has often been cited as a success story for democratization. However, the construction of a resilient and efficient civil society is still an ongoing process. At societal level, ethnic cleavages, polarized geopolitical preferences of the citizens, or antagonist value systems are hard to reconcile for solving fundamental challenges such as the representation of unprivileged groups, minorities, gender inequalities, etc. Women empowerment is seen as the process that alters social power dynamics by questioning ideologies that perpetuate inequalities, challenging the status quo for obtaining and controlling resources, and transforming institutional structures that uphold power imbalances, such as the family, state, and market. (Batliwala 2007) Our article explores the state of affairs of this issue in the Republic of Moldova, specifically, the perception of women’s civil society organizations in order to understand the dynamic of its winding, but steady, development. As such, we analyze the existing dissensus at societal level over core issues such as gender roles, financial rights of women, political representation, and domestic violence. In particular, we outline the current status of women’s organizations’ success throughout the Republic of Moldova, whilst focusing on discrepancies between formal and actual gender equality, the ubiquity of post-Soviet and conservative ideology, scarce financial resources, and the lack of mass support for women’s organizations. Despite these challenges, such groups have managed to carve out a space to advocate for issues on behalf of women – namely, political and financial empowerment, and actions against domestic violence – by using affirmative measures, informal support, media and educational campaigns. Our qualitative research is based on 15 viewpoint interviews conducted between January and February 2024 with Moldovan citizens in Chişinău, Bălți and Cahul, selected in a gender-balanced manner, aged between 18 and 55. The results of the research confirm the hypothesis related to the role played by post-Soviet ideology, the influence of the Orthodox Church, divergent economic interests of the population, as well as precarious economic thinking. The results show as well that thirty years after the collapse of the USSR, role models can offer guidance to build cohesion and trust in civil society.
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