Women are better represented in business than politics in Romania

Romania is above the EU average for the share of women in management positions, but among the last in the European Union for the share of women in Parliament and Government, Romania-Insider.com has found from Eurostat data and other public sources.

About four in ten (40%) of the management positions in Romanian companies are occupied by women, according to Eurostat data for 2019. The share of women managers in Romania was above the EU average of 37%, but not among EU's highest.

Thus, Romania is 12th and far behind leader Latvia, where almost 55% of management positions are held by women. Poland and Bulgaria also have almost as many women as men in management positions (over 48%). On the other end, Cyprus has only 22% of management positions held by women, while Croatia and Italy have under 28%.

While Romania is above the EU average for women in management positions, the country is among the last for women in Parliament and Government. According to Eurostat, the share of women in Romania's Parliament and Government reached 20% in 2020, double compared to 2012 (9.9%). The EU average was 32.7%, and Sweden had almost as many women as men (49.6%) in its Parliament and Government, followed by Finland (46%), Belgium (43.3%), Spain (42.2%), and Norway (40.8%). On the opposite end, in Hungary, only 12.6% of the MPs and ministers were women.

Romania's numbers slightly declined after the general elections in December 2020. Only 88 of the 466 MPs (18.8%) are now women, according to data centralized by Romania-Insider.com. The share is a little higher in the Senate (19.1%) than the Chamber of Deputies (18.8%).

The situation is even worse in the Government. After it had the first woman prime minister in 2018 – PSD's Viorica Dancila, Romania currently has only one woman in the center-right cabinet led by Florin Citu – labor minister Raluca Turcan (PNL). The other 20 ministers are all men.

The woman currently occupying the highest political seat in Romania is Senate president Anca Dragu, representing the progressist alliance USR-PLUS, PNL's junior ruling coalition partner.

(Photo source: Dreamstime.com)