Discrimination against women on the Romanian and European Union labour market

Abstract

In the present article, there is examined the issue of discrimination against women on the labour market, taking into account three essential aspects: employment, wages and promotion to managing positions. For gathering the data, there was resorted to the statistical analysis and a sociological field research, among a representative population, constituted of 1,500 subjects, from the South-West Oltenia Region. Some of the collected data is commented in the present work. The official statistics shows that the share of women who occupy this area is of 52.4%, lower than the national average, of 56.2%. Over 28% of the questioned people considered that the gender discrimination represents the main impediment of employment, to which there are added other reasons too, such as: the lack of qualifications and studies, prejudices and household chores etc. The statistical data attests the fact that, within EU, women have been averagely remunerated with 16.4% less than the men, while in Romania, a man earned 9.1% more than a woman. The sociological field research showed that women are disadvantaged as regarding the choosing of profession, almost 40% of the inquired subjects stating that they are unable to work in certain fields, which are exclusively occupied by men. Moreover, it was noticed that women have a more reduced share in the economic and political management. For example, in the Romanian Parliament, the share of women is of 18%, that of the men of 82%. This situation is also met in other countries, as Italy, where 69% of the parliamentarians are men and 31% are women.