Women earn 200 lei more than men in Romania, yet poorly represented in politics, decision-making

By Romania Journal Last updated Mar 6, 2024

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The average salary of a woman in Romania is 6,026 lei, 200 lei higher than that of men, which is 5,804 lei, according to data from the Global Gender Gap Report 2023 issued by the World Economic Forum.

However, in terms of decision-making, women are poorly represented in Romania. According to the same report, our country ranks 113 out of 146 countries, being outranked by some African countries, such as Ghana. Not even a large number of women are involved in the decisions of banks in Romania. According to a study presented by BankingNews, 3 of the 16 largest banks have no women in their executive management teams and only 5 of the 16 largest banks have more than 3 women in their management teams.

In Romania, only 5 out of the 32 financial institutions have a woman at the helm: Maria Rousseva at BRD, Mihaela Bitu at ING, Mihaela Lupu at Unicredit Bank, Gabriela Nistor at Idea Bank and Cristina Mahika-Voiconi at Libra Internet Bank. The Romanian bank with the most women in executive positions is CEC Bank, with over 66% of women in top management positions.

“Unfortunately, corporations cannot be anything other than what Romanian society is. There is much to be said about the representation and pay of women in corporations and women’s access to leadership positions, but it depends on where we look. At the European level, we are not doing badly. For example, in 2012 – 30.5% of the management functions of companies listed on the stock exchange were held by women (source: European Institute for Gender Equality), and in 2021, Romania reached 34%. However, if we take into account that women are much better educated than men in the Romanian space (according to INS – about 60% of people with postgraduate studies are women), it is obvious that women still face major inequalities at the level of society“, sociologist Gelu Duminica explained.

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