Family-friendly workplace policies help parents in Moldova reconcile work and family duties

In the Republic of Moldova, the government and private sector have introduced a range of family-friendly policies to make it easier for women and men to reconcile career and family duties. Such policies are not only powerful tools to shift discriminatory gender norms and redistribute unpaid care work, they also make it easier to tackle the effects of demographic change.

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7 ways you can promote gender equality in a world of rapid demographic change

Women and girls make up about half of the population in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Yet their desires for their lives, families and careers are often ignored in discussions about the region’s demographic future. Worse, their rights as equal citizens, including their reproductive rights, are under threat, as anxieties around population decline have given rise to pro-natalist policies and narratives putting pressure on women to have more children.

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6 essential ingredients for stronger families

Families are widely recognized as key building blocks of societies. It is through families, as a recent UN Women report pointed out, that people share resources such as housing and income, look after those who are sick and frail, and reproduce, nurture, and care for the next generation. Families can be places of love and solidarity and are important for each member’s sense of identity and belonging. At the same time, families can also be places of conflict and even violence, fed by discrimination and inequalities.

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Family-friendly workplaces to support demographic resilience

When Diana Donțu, in Moldova, found out she was pregnant with triplets, she asked her boss for flexible working arrangements. He agreed — these had become more familiar during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it made good economic sense to retain skilled employees. Donțu worked from home after the births and later went back to the office three days a week as executive director of Panilino, a cake factory. “Without these policies, I would have had to find another company, or stay at home,” she said.

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UNFPA conference looks at how family policies can promote gender equality and tackle Europe’s demographic woes

Over 100 government and business leaders from across Eastern Europe and Central Asia participated in the conference organized by UNFPA and held under UNFPA’s Expanding Choices programme, funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC). Participants stressed that both governments and the private sector can play a role in instituting family policies.

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