Corruption influences, indirectly, the career advancement of women in central public authorities (CPA), as the results of a sociological study launched on April 28, 2016 suggest. The research “Impact of corruption on women’s career development opportunities in the Central Public Administration of the Republic of Moldova” was developed by the Institute of Public Policies.

The study was conducted during November 2015 - February 2016 period, on a sample of civil servants employed at the State Chancellery; the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family and the Ministry of Youth and Sport of the Republic of Moldova. It represents a collaborative effort of UNDP Global Anti-Corruption Initiative (GAIN) based in New York, UNDP Regional Hub for Europe and the CIS based in Istanbul, and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Moldova in the framework of the project “Strengthening the Corruption Prevention and Analysis Functions of the National Anti- Corruption Center”, implemented with the financial support of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Women from the CPA perceive to a greater extent than men the presence of corruption acts both within the public service in Moldova and within the institutions they are employed. 64,5% of women consider that the corruption phenomenon is spread to a large or very large extend within the public administration, comparing to 55% of men. 10,3% of women consider that the corruption phenomenon is manifested to a large or very large extend in the institution they are employed, while none of men agrees to this statement.   

More than half of the respondents consider that there is a lack of transparency in CPA in what regards the criteria of offering benefits to certain categories of employees. Women perceive to a large extend than men application of some discretionary criteria within their subdivisions and state the lack of transparency in the way the benefits are offered.

The corruption manifestations, such as favoritism, cronyism, influence peddling, combined with the social barriers, family obligations, but also with the traditional gender roles’ distribution, limit women opportunities to strengthen their professional capacities. Thus, often women don’t manage to allocate time for participation at conferences, study visits, trips abroad and need more time for a career advancement, comparing to men.

Moreover, women hardly accept high-ranking posts, determining the more rapid career advancement of men, who, in return, favor and promote the male employees.

"The relevance of the study consists not only in revealing the risks related to women’s career advancement but also in coming up with recommendations that will enhance the capacities of Central Public Authorities’ institutions on ensuring equal access to professional empowerment of women”, stated at the presentation of the study Anastasia Oceretnîi, Vice-Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family.

„Public administrations institutions are not providing sufficient incentives in order to create a friendly environment for women to encourage them in pursuing a professional career in public service. In this sense, the conducted research comes with a number of important recommendations for the development of transparent and gender sensitive policies aimed at reducing corruption related incidents in the public service,” said Evghenii Golosceapov, Program Analyst at UNDP Moldova.

The research recommends, among other measures, developing institutional policies to encourage and stimulate married women and women with children to participate in the activities for professional development. At the same time, there is a need to increase the level of transparency regarding the employment and career advancement opportunities.