The participants of the program “Transnistrian Dialogues: wemen’s edition” told us abour their impressions from the webinar “The importance of women’s participation in decision-making”, which was held by the Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on GendeLiliana Palihovich.

Daria Zimbelskaya, journalist: On the one hand, a woman is not some alien creature, and therefore has the same fundamental rights as a man. However, it is worth understanding that due to certain objective reasons, a woman pauses on her way to build a career, participate in political or public life, due to maternity leave – the birth and upbringing of children. And Liliana Palihovich drew the group’s attention to this fact: it is not about men and women having equal rights. The point is different. It is important to give women opportunities and advantages and to fix it in the state system through certain policies.

Irina Smirnova, journalist: It is necessary that in the public and private sectors to increase the number of women in decision-making positions, women can and should show that they are able to cope in leadership positions. And we can see that nowadays the representation of women in certain positions is increasing, it shows that people are beginning to move away from stereotypes and if a woman is a good specialist, she is chosen for her professional qualities, not because of her gender.

The program “Transnistrian Dialogues: Women’s Edition” includes a group of women from both banks of the Dniester. During this autumn, they meet weekly on the online platform ZOOM, to participate in thematic seminars, organized by IPIS.

The programme is implemented with the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland and Belgian Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.