The book "Gender Barometer. Republic of Moldova. Results and Studies According to the Opinion Poll" was launched at "Partnership for Development" Centre, a non-governmental, independent and non-profit organization. The book was published by Arc Publishing House, Chisinau, in 2006. Representatives of ProGen Alliance, which comprises 74 women NGOs, have been invited to the launching event.

Bellow we will present you the content of the book, emphasizing the most significant issues with regard to the results of polls and analytical studies conducted by experts in the field.

Ala Mindicanu, PhD, Associate Professor, UN expert in gender issues, one of the authors of the analytical study "Gender Equality in the Republic of Moldova. Realities, Mentality, Solutions", reminded the audience that the present "Barometer" is the third one, the first two having been developed in 1999 and 2000. Meanwhile, the mentality of both women and men has changed, even if not as much as we would like it to. Obviously, gender NGOs, UN international organizations, and the EU have played an important role influencing decision-making at the state level. Currently, the national legislation contains provisions on gender equality in a number of documents, such as the Family Code and the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men. The present "Barometer" differs from the previous ones to a great extent, because men's opinion has been also taken into account besides the opinion of women, which has not been done before. Ala Mindicanu mentioned that both the poll and the study represent a valuable material, which could serve as a source of information for an eventual doctoral thesis on "General Mentality Regarding Gender Attitude in the Republic of Moldova".

The opinion poll was conducted by the Centre for Analysis and Sociological, Political and Psychological Investigations CIVIS. 1122 respondents from the Republic of Moldova (except for Transnistria) aged over 18 took part in the poll. Data were collected within the period of February 3-18, 2006. Romanian and Russian were the two working languages. The questionnaire comprised 6 subject-matters: a) gender image; b) private life; c) public life; d) gender and economy; e) deviant behaviour; f) sociodemographic data and Conclusions for each section. Questionnaires were filled in at the respondents' places. The analytical studies carried out based on the poll represent the Part II of the book.

Gender Image includes answers to 9 questions, which, in the opinion of poll authors, form the gender image. Thus, the majority of respondents, both men and women, agree with the following statements: man's responsibility is to earn money, while woman's responsibility is to take care of the family and household (64.6%); what women really want is a home and children (63.1%); a pre-school aged child suffers if his/her mother works (62,.8%); family life itself suffers if the woman works full-time (61.6%); and, it is not good if a man stays at home and takes care of the child, while the woman works (55.8%), even though our legislation, following the example of other countries more developed in terms of gender and equality of chances, stipulates the fact that the father has the right to paternal leave.

Also, from respondents' statements we find out that the situation of men in our society is more favourable than that of women, because every third woman has thought at least once in her life that it would have been better if she was born of opposite sex. Field data show that women are perceived as more caring (71.4%) and sensible (71.8%) beings in comparison with men, who are characterized as violent (54.0%). It should be mentioned that women, although having an inferior social status compared with men, do not lose their self-confidence. The conclusion comes from women's perception of women, "the majority of them believe that they are as smart and practical as men", moreover, "40% of questioned women consider that women are smarter than men" ("Gender Barometer", pg. 17 - 18).

It has been established that boys and girls are educated differently in our society, which surely contributes to the creation of gender image. Boys' education focuses on discipline, while the one of girls on hard-work, discipline and obedience. Therefore, one should not be surprised by the fact that one of the first conclusions made by the study experts confirms the existence of the patriarchical model in our society, according to which the woman's main responsibility is to take care of the family and the household. This opposes the model of democratic countries, in which the situation of women has been addressed long time ago. Although the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was ratified by the Republic of Moldova on April 28, 1994, and the Initial National Report (I and II) on the observance of the above-mentioned Convention was submitted in 2000 and 2005 to the UN CEDAW Committee, the situation did not change, and country's decision makers ignored almost all the recommendations of the UN Committee. In spite of the fact that, under the influence of external factors, plans have been adopted and reports have been developed within this period of time, no budgetary allocations are set apart for these activities, all these declaration remaining only on paper according to the author of the study, Ala Mindicanu ("Barometer", pg.60 - 61).

As for the poll results on Private Life, it has been established that the most important issues for a successful marriage, in the opinion of the majority of respondents (over 67%), are love, trust between partners, loyalty, mutual support and separate dwelling, and that this perception is unanimous both for men and women. Obviously, the population of "the poorest country in Europe" believes that "spiritual values are more important than the material ones for a successful marriage" (pg.27). Domestic responsibility and attitude towards it represent another issue approached in the study on private life. The results of the poll confirm the men's superiority compared to women, because women are responsible for kitchen (81.1%), cleaning (79.4%), laundry and dish washing (86.3%), as well as daily child care (37.5%), supervision of children' s homework and free time (35.4%), and child health (37.4%). While, in their private life, men are responsible for repairing home appliances (tap, socket - 68.9%), taking care of the external household (animals, poultry - 30.1%), in particular in rural localities, where the share of women's participation is also high (21.8%). Although women have domestic responsibilities, they are also responsible for daily shopping (48.00%)

Violeta Moraru, PhD, Centre for Community Sociology and Gender Studies, author of the analytical study "Women's Private Life in the Republic of Moldova", considers that "the results of "Gender Barometer" emphasize the fact that social tasks and roles are distributed unequally in the Moldovan family" (pg.114). The private life of a woman must be more varied, implying coffee with friends, beauty salons, sports, as well as "the right to opinion and decision in her own family, distribution of family tasks" (115).

Being a mother is of primary importance for our woman. According to some previously conducted sociologic researches, such as the UNDP Report on "Women's Status in the Republic of Moldova" developed in 1998, to which Violeta Moraru refers to, the main values of a woman are: mutual understating and respect in the family - 88%, children - 83%, material well-being - 79% and family - 74%. Therefore, as the author states, "a woman never perceives herself without children and outside the family", (ibid. pg.116). And when determining life elements women lack, the following were pointed out: material well-being - 82%, mutual understanding and respect - 22%, family - 14%. These answers show how confused women are nowadays and how much they strive to find "a respectable place in their family" (pg. 117). As the author ascertains, the studies previously conducted in the Republic of Moldova emphasize the fact that the Moldovan woman does not want her children to live her fate as mother and wife (32.5%). But they do not know how to improve the situation, and we would advise them to try to prove their worthiness in other spheres of life than the household. This fact is also proved by the "Gender Barometer" poll. For example, to the question "But in the public life: administration, politics, at workplace, etc.", only 4.0% of respondents considered that "it would be better if a woman managed it". To the question: "What do you think the causes hindering women from the republic to take more active part in the political life are?", the answers are the following: psychological barriers (27.6%), national traditions (23.7%), lack of self-confidence (28.6%), political system mainly formed of men (36.8%), incapacity to make decisions (18.4%), women's marginalization (13.8%) and, of course, the burden of women's household works (59.8%) (pg.31). "The comparative analysis, we read in Conclusions, allowed us to outline the tendency in the answers of both inquired women and men - the degree of acceptance of women in executive positions decreases, in particular in the case of male respondents, proportionally to the increase of the level of executive positions" (pg.34).

Sociologic polls on other issues have been conducted as well, such as: Public Life, Gender and Economy, Violence/Deviant Behaviour. The analytical study "Gender Equality in Public Life of the Republic of Moldova" signed by Valentina Bodrug-Lungu, PhD, Associate Professor, national expert in gender issues, and Ecaterina Mardarovici, President of Women's Political Club 50/50, states that the experience of developed countries reveals the fact that active involvement of women, as well as of men, in the decision-making process facilitates the promotion of policies on gender-sensible issues directed towards the needs of both genders, which contributes to the increase of citizens' living standard and sustainable development of the country, like in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the USA, etc. (pg.132).

In February 2006, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova finally adopted the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, and on March 16, 2006, the President of the country promulgated this law. This was a step forward towards the implementation of the gender concept. The Law stipulates the basic notions of gender equality and protection of women and men, but, as its has been mentioned, it is declarative in terms of state mechanism functioning and ensuring opportunities for women to actually take part in the decision-making process and in eliminating gender-based discrimination (pg.138). The law contains several aspects, which hinder the observance of equal opportunities for women and men de jure: the minimum share of 30% gender representation is not accepted, the procedure of submitting and examining gender-based discrimination complaints has been eliminated, the procedure of sanctioning gender-based discrimination cases has been removed as well, and, which is the most regrettable, neither state nor local budgets provide funds for the active implementation of the law, which proves to be of a formal nature in the end.

Vasile Cantarji, researcher, Centre for Sociological Investigations and Market Studies CBS-AXA, author of the analytical study "Gender Dimension in Social Life: Image Aspects", tries to identify the causes, which have contributed to the persistence of a discriminatory pattern towards women in society at all levels, even under the new conditions of democratization of our society. The study allowed "establishing the existence of a distorted pattern in the citizens' conscience, shaped, in particular, within the soviet period", a pattern that can be described as follows: from the historical point of view, role distribution from the perspective of activities within the family versus those outside it, together with all the produced effects. The term role distribution is older than the egalitarian pattern of family responsibilities. In the author's opinion, the egalitarian pattern developed mainly through the egalitarian ideology within the soviet period and overlapped with the first term, which resulted in the appearance of a mixture representing a distorted situation that emphasized inequality even more, because women were forced to undertake the tasks they received after getting out of the family (a necessary condition for gender equality evolution), but "without being exempted of traditional women's obligations" (pg.95). Who had to relieve them? On the one hand, women themselves must become aware of their situation, and on the other hand, public awareness of the woman's social status under new social and economic conditions should be raised as well.

No matter how strange it might sound, but it is women, in a number bigger than that of men (56.4% and 49.7% respectively), who accept the existing reality as something normal. Vasile Cantarji draws certain conclusions, and namely: the supporters of this situation are more numerous among older groups, although the difference is not that significant. Here are several data: 60 years and over (57.4%), 45-59 years (55.0%), 30-44 years (51.3%), and 19-29 years (49.7%). We observe that the tradition still works and persists. The author of the study believes that "Sometimes tradition acts against men as well", because men are considered to be less capable of educating and taking care of children, "this being the reason, for which justice often does not entrust them minor children in case of divorce" (pg.97 - 98). Also, we learn from the study of Vasilie Cantarji that the majority of respondents find abnormal the situation, in which the husband stays at home and takes care of children, while his partner works (pg.98). In our society, a man who might choose to undertake such responsibilities, must do it discreetly, otherwise he risks becoming the victim of people's gossips. And in our country, as we already know it, people talk so much that they can barely be stopped; moreover, the person who is blamed can get a nickname and stay labelled for the rest of his/her life.

According to the "Gender Barometer" we learn that the fields of activity specific for men in the opinion of the majority of Moldovan population (Gender and Economy results), are: army/police (75.6%) construction (72.5%), power engineering (72.3%) and transport. Almost half of respondents (47.7%) consider that it is men who should also work in agriculture. In case of women, there are no fields of activity designed especially for them, but, in the respondents' opinion, the fields that are more or less specific for women are: textile industry (48.0%), education (28.1%), and social services (25.8%).

As for Violence/Deviant Behaviour, the poll referred to several sections, in particular: prostitution, sexual abuse and harassment, verbal, psychological and physical violence. Domestic violence of men against women and of women against men represented a special aspect. It has been established that physical abuse on the part of men is more common, than physical abuse on the part of women. Often, family conflicts are generated by a range of problems, first of all, by financial instability (65.4%), followed by children's behaviour (9.0%), alcohol (7.6%), parents/parents-in-law (4.9%), television set (4.4%). Other causes include: jealousy (0.7%), character (0.3%), unemployment (0.1%) irritability (0.1%), the husband does not contribute to the family (0.1%), etc.

"Gender Barometer 2006" is indeed an exceptional study and its publishing fills in a large informational and theoretical gap with regard to gender equality in the Republic of Moldova.