Women's rights in Moldova

In the 1800s all women were treated and ultimately were seen as inferior to men. They were denied the right to vote and were expected to restrict their sphere of interest to their home and families. Even worse, after marriage they weren’t allowed to own property, let alone have their own wages or sign a contract. In this article, I am going to tell you about the history of patriarchy and how it has affected a country in the East of Europe called Moldova and about what we can do to improve matters. But in order to truly understand the source of this misogynistic, patriarchal world, we need to go back to the beginning, to the dawn of humanity.

Seven million years ago, at the beginning of the human race, when the lifespan for women was 28 years old and even less for men, women had to hunt, bear their babies in an unforgiving environment and take care of them after birth. As we progressed, we were required to reproduce in order to survive and not go extinct. It is estimated that infant mortality was 70%-75%, meaning that women would have to bear children not only once, but multiple times, to ensure that they would have left at least one descendent behind. Hunting, having children and ultimately staying alive for over two decades (this alone being pretty arduous work), were all things that females in our race had to do at first. Think about it; doing all three must’ve been a Herculean task! That wasn’t patriarchy, however: it was a way of survival.

But a male character bringing home food and a female character assigned the job of reproduction was already implanted in humanity and this continued for thousands of years, until the 1800s. Queens weren't even allowed to vote. In fact, the reason queen Elizabeth the I never married, even though it is said that she had a slight temptation from time to time, was because with marriage would come the inevitable deprivation of power to a king. During the Victorian era, women couldn’t sue, get a divorce or vote and discriminatory laws were repealed. However, feminist ideas started spreading among educated middle-class women and the suffrage movement gained momentum in the last years of the Victorian Era. It all started with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. They were pioneer crusaders for women’s rights and activists that played a pivotal role in the suffrage movement. They fought for what they thought was right. Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting illegally in 1870 which was a terrible crime at the time and was fined $100. Can you imagine?

When the suffrage movement managed to persuade Congress to ratify the 19th amendment that provided women with the right to vote in 1920, we started our descent into and equal society.

We have had a tremendous amount of progress in this area, however, as many outrageous cases still rise every now and then. Some of the worst forms of discrimination are rape and abuse, both physical and emotional. In fact, 63% of Moldovan women have at least once endured abuse from a partner. Domestic violence is such a scandalous problem that in 2013 an organization named CEDAW conducted a study on this and the results were outrageous. The organization was shocked at the level of abuse towards girls and women.

But here comes the problem. Everyone has realized and been made aware of this problem, but they aren’t doing anything because they don’t realize the scale of how bad things actually are. Imagine being a woman in Moldova with an abusive partner, and you having to live in constant fear of the danger he poses to you and possibly your children. Absolutely brutal. There aren’t many aid centres for this there, they are very limited. Any woman living far from this city, for example, in rural areas, have nowhere to go. They are trapped in a circle of violence and silence. Just think of how many deaths occur because of this very problem. It could be thousands every day. A man could actually come home and abuse his family, having no memory of this in the morning because it’s routine.

In Moldova, views on women are traditional; although they have come a long way, it is still considered that a women is someone who bears children and stays home. However, this is obviously wrong. These women should have the freedom to have a good life where their partner doesn't feel so superior over them that they think it’s alright to take advantage of them. Even if you are a respected woman in Moldova, it doesn’t really change matters. Most abuses aren’t even reported, just like in Middle Eastern countries and Turkey, meaning that the problem has reached new parameters. Local police need to respond more effectively and appropriately to this issue, maybe even be given specific trainings on how to handle this. There should be more shelters around Moldova that can help refugees from abusive partners and help them remake their lives. But even that would only solve part of the problem: the victims would escape all the violence, but the abusers and their mindset would still be there. This is why they could offer rehabilitation programs to abusers to shift their mindset and if there are people whose mindset can’t be so easily altered, primary schools could promote a better mindset, where equality is celebrated and inculcated into society.

Overall, I believe that this problem isn’t being taken seriously enough in Moldova at the moment, with overlooked abuse cases by the authorities and almost no prominent action taken by the government. The data speaks for itself, really. Equality is in the benefit of everyone, male and female, from more income to a happier family atmosphere and lifestyle.