Radio România Internațional

Tag: equality

  • On gender equality

    On gender equality

    The rise in intimidation,
    harassment and hate speech against women and girls, including online, requires
    immediate and firm action, reads a joint statement signed by over 20 embassies
    and the representative office of the European Commission in Romania on March 8, the International
    Women’s Day.




    We celebrate the
    achievements regarding substantive gender equality and the progress
    accomplished so far in securing the rights of women and girls all over the
    globe. At the same time, we must acknowledge that much remains to be done until
    women and girls can fully exercise their human rights, the statement reads.
    According to the document, Ensuring
    women’s full, equal, effective and meaningful participation in all spheres of
    public and private life, including their political representation and
    leadership in decision-making processes, is essential to achieving gender
    equality.




    The signatories also
    emphasise that women and girls have the right to live free from violence and discrimination.
    However, violence against women and girls is the most common human rights
    violation as almost 1 in 3 women has experienced, at least once in her life, physical
    and/or sexual violence – a fact unchanged for over a decade. (…) Access to
    comprehensive support services and to justice for victims and survivors of
    sexual and gender-based violence has to be ensured, they argue.




    The fact that women are
    not adequately represented in national parliaments and governments, including in
    Romania, is not good for democracy, the European Commissioner for Equality Helena
    Dalli said in her turn. Early this week, she was on an official visit to
    Bucharest, to attend a conference on empowering women in Romania. As the EU
    official put it, all women must have financial and economic independence; we must
    recognise and appreciate the work and contribution of women, and we must give
    them the tools to achieve balance between their personal and professional
    lives, she added.




    Helena Dalli also pointed
    out that in Romania 46% of women, as against only 25% of men, are the primary
    care givers to children, elders or disabled members of their families. A fair
    sharing of responsibilities would help men and women to have equal
    opportunities to work without sacrificing their family life, the EU
    Commissioner explained, while also saying that women currently earn an average
    30% less per hour than men.




    She also discussed the high teenage
    pregnancy rate in Romania, which propagates
    poverty, and the discrimination against Roma people, both in terms of gender
    and ethnicity. The EU official described the situation in which Roma live in
    many communities in the European Union as ‘scandalous’ and ‘unacceptable’.




    And she also mentioned
    that the violation of the rights of people in the LGBTIQ community is contrary
    to the spirit of the European Union and warned that EU funding
    should not reach the local authorities in areas where these people are
    excluded. (AMP)

  • Debates on gender inequality

    Debates on gender inequality

    Although some inequity still exists, the European Union has made substantial progress in the past few decades towards ensuring gender equality. According to the European Commission, there are encouraging signs, with a growing number of women working and obtaining better qualifications. The number of women working in poorly paid sectors and holding fewer decision-making positions is still large.



    Brussels has a strategy in place to make sure that by 2025 Europe is even closer to the goal of becoming a continent where men and women are equal. All Europeans, women and men, girls and boys, should enjoy the freedom to find and follow their path, should have equal chances to prosper, should be equal members of society and become leaders, if they deserve it, the strategy argues. Key targets include ending violence against women, fighting gender stereotypes, doing away with gender disparities in the labour market and ensuring equal participation in various economic sectors, bridging the wage gap, eliminating gender disparities in terms of family responsibilities and reaching gender balance in decision-making processes and in politics.



    Against this background, the Romanian labour minister Raluca Turcan, attending the 3rd edition of the ʹWomen In Economyʹ Gala organised by the National Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs (CONAF), said that unfortunately gender inequality and discrimination are not seen as imperative issues in Romania. Women appear to have enough representatives in all areas, and access to opportunities seems to be equal.



    However, at a closer look, the statistics provided by EU institutions and private structures indicate that substantial gaps exist. According to Raluca Turcan, the global Mastercard Index of women entrepreneurs indicates that only 27% of the existing businesses are held by women.



    Conversely, for instance, Eurostat says that during the pandemic the share of women in the front line of healthcare services was 80%, as against 20% for men, which proves that in some sectors women are a lot more vulnerable to the shocks caused by the crisis.



    Romania is an open society and progress has been made, but this doesnt make Romanians less traditionalist, added the labour minister Raluca Turcan, one of the only 2 women ministers in the current cabinet in Bucharest. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • March 8, 2021

    March 8, 2021

    COVID-19 Romania’s PM Florin Cîţu announced he asked the
    coordinator of the national vaccination programme Valeriu Gheorghiţă and the
    health minister Vlad Voiculescu to take steps to initiate the 3rd
    vaccination phase sooner than planned, because in March Romania will receive
    2.6 million anti-COVID vaccine doses, which is more than originally estimated.
    The PM said that where citizens entitled to vaccines in the 1st and
    2nd stages of the programme decline getting the jabs, the respective
    doses should go to the general public scheduled for immunisation in the 3rd
    phase. So far 1.16 million people have received the vaccine in Romania. On the
    other hand, more than 830,000 infections have been reported in Romania since
    the start of the pandemic, with the death toll standing at nearly 21,000. Face-to-face classes continue for senior-year middle and
    high school students, but in a mixed system, with half of the children
    attending classes online, under a joint order issued by the education and
    health ministries. The measure is in place up to a COVID infection rate of 6 per
    thousand



    POLICE The Romanian interior ministry intends to increase the number of police forces monitoring compliance with the new COVID-19 containment measures introduced as of Monday in Bucharest and in Timişoara (west). The city of Timişoara and several villages in Timiş County are under lockdown as of midnight, as the number of coronavirus cases is on the rise. Bucharest is also subject to new restrictions, such as the closing of restaurants, cafes and bars. These measures add to the ones already in place in other red-code regions in the country, where the COVID-19 infection rate is over 3 per 1,000.



    WOMEN Romania ranks first in the EU by number of women holding top corporate posts, according to a release issued by a women-founded business centre, which quotes a Eurostat report. According to these figures, 34% of the total senior executive positions in Romania are held by women. Also, over 500,000 active businesses in Romania have women as shareholders. Across Europe, women account for 37% of managers, 28% of board members and 18% of the senior executives. The European Parliament is celebrating today the International Womens Day, in a plenary session. In a conference on “Women on the frontline and lessons learned from managing the crisis, women in politics, healthcare and gender equality share personal experiences and good practices with MEPs.



    PANDEMIC The European Union begins talks today with the United States of America to secure the supply of US-made materials for anti-COVID vaccines, which are subject to tight export controls. The point is to coordinate efforts so as to avoid bottlenecks, AFP reports, quoting EU sources. These components include bags fitted to the manufacturers vats, as well as vials, syringes and so-called “nanolipid particles used to encapsulate some messenger RNA vaccines. Meanwhile, Hungary introduces new containment measures on Monday, with most shops closed for 2 weeks. The UK on the other hand is beginning to lift restrictions, and millions of children are returning to schools after a 2-month break. In turn, Israel is returning to normal. Some restrictions were lifted on Sunday, 15 days ahead of national elections, and Israelis can now go to cafes, restaurants and schools. Worldwide, according to worldometers updates, nearly 117.4 million people have caught the virus, of whom 93 million have recovered and 2.6 million died since the start of the pandemic a year ago.



    FILM Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, the most recent film of Romanian director Radu Jude, won the Golden Bear at the 71st edition of Berlin International Film Festival – Berlinale, held online. The film looks into the relations between the individual and society when the leaked sex video of a school teacher goes viral on the Internet, turning her life upside down.



    TENNIS Several Romanian athletes are playing today in the main draw on the Dubai tennis tournament, which has over 1.84 million US dollars in prize money. The first Romanian in the competition, Ana Bogdan (100 WTA) lost to Marketa Vondrousova, Czech Republic, (20 WTA), in 2 sets. Sorana Cîrstea (67 WTA) takes on the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko (142 WTA), Irina Begu (72 WA) is facing Garbine Muguruza of Spain (16 WTA), and Patricia Țig (61 WTA) plays against Latvias Jelena Ostapenko (51 WTA). Two Romanians are also taking part in the doubles competition. Last years winner of the Dubai tournament, the Romanian Simona Halep, 3 WTA, is not taking part in the competition this year. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • Women in the digital world

    Women in the digital world

    Romanian IT&C experts have long gained appreciation at home and abroad. They include a lot of girls and women who, in spite of the stereotype that women are not fit for technical professions, have been making a career in the field, even more so than in other states. For instance, according to the 2017 statistics of the US Company Hacker Ran, Romania ranks sixth, with a score of 164.9 in a top of women programmers’ performance.



    These data concur with those provided by EU institutions. According to Eurostat, Romania and Lithuania have the second largest share of women working in IT&C — 25.7% in 2017, while the European average is nearly 17%. Bulgaria ranks first, with women accounting for 26.5% of its IT&C employees. That is no wonder if we think of the development of education in the field, as Veronica Stefan, founder of the Digital Citizens Romania Association points out:



    Veronica Stefan: “We fare well especially as regards young women studying computing and taking their degree. We’re less successful in terms of women getting an MA or PhD degree, which means those young women don’t specialize at a higher level. But we do have women programmers, who develop various technological products. All in all, Romania has a large number of certified IT&C experts. Half of the high school computer science classes are made up of boys and half of girls. Our educational system encourages technical tuition and that is apparent in the big cities.”



    Nevertheless, it is difficult to say how many women working in the IT&C sector hold managerial offices or are mere employees. Furthermore, the IT market in Romania relies on outsourcing, with many companies producing and developing ideas that come from elsewhere. Moreover, few women are on the managing board of Romanian start-ups or who are managers of Romanian entrepreneurship projects.



    Veronica Stefan: “Women are team members but not necessarily team leaders. They are often members of the communication team, or of the team developing ideas. So when it comes to entrepreneurship, figures are below expectations. It is a good thing that 30% of girls and women work and study in the IT&C sector, but things are not as good as regards entrepreneurship.”



    Things aren’t better in this respect in the rest of the EU either. Gender equality experts say that the small number of women working not only in IT, but in technology and science in general, has to do with women’s self-confidence and with the aspirations instilled by tradition and education. Lina Salanauskaite, a researcher with the European Institute for Gender Equality in Vilnius, tells us more about it:



    Lina Salanauskaite: “If you look at the share of women in terms of ICT specialists in the EU, it is about 17%, and you see that this average across all EU countries is in this group that says table, which essentially means that in the last five years there was nothing changing. We also see that in a number of countries, despite this low share of women among ICT specialists, the number of women is even dropping. There are different reasons for why we have few women in ICT professions and they relate to larger differences of why there are few women in science and engineering professions and how the gender stereotypes walk across these things. But I wanted to point out to you about the aspirations. If you look at the age of 15, essentially it’s settled, so at the age of 15, from 3% minimum of teenagers — we take the whole population of teenage boys across the EU and ask — this was the survey done by the OECD- how many of them would aspire to become ICT professionals, and so from minimum 3% maximum 15% of teenage boys wanted to become ICT professionals. Then we look in terms of girls aspirations to become ICT professionals and we see that maximum of just above 1% in four countries we have girls that aspire to become ICT professionals. So girls are not even reaching the minimum aspirations of the boys currently. And this is one of the reflections where we show that this motivation, confidence, is not about digital skills, is not about math skills, or scientific skills, it’s more about how boys and girls see their future, where they see they can be strong, where they can have maybe a progression of career going forward, where they could be able to combine work and family, etc., so we see that the age of 15 is in a way divided.”



    Back to Romania, when it comes to specialising in ITC and in basic digital skills, such as using the computer or going online to create content, for information or for looking for a job, Romania is full of paradoxes, says Veronica Stefan:



    Veronica Stefan: “Although we now speak of how well we stand in the IT and digital sector in terms of the number or specialists, when we look at the overall population, statistics show we are at the bottom of the ranking. Around 30% of the general population has basic digital competencies, which puts us on the last place in the EU. We do very well in this respect in big cities like Bucharest, Cluj, Iasi, Constanta, Craiova, Sibiu and Brasov, but large parts of the population outside these cities simply lack these skills.”


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Palcu, Elena Enache)