П р а в н о и с т о р и ч е с к и ф а к у л т е т катедра «социология»

Theoretical background

The past decades have seen an upsurge of studies concerned with processes of gender segregation in the Western labor markets (Cockburn, 1983, 1985; Crompton and Jones, 1984; Walby, 1986). At the same time, women’s participation in paid employment has increased and legislation for equal pay and opportunities has been enacted, but the gendered divisions in the labor market remain. The broad nature of these gender divisions is well established: women and men are segregated into different occupations (Hakim, 1979 and 1981), this segregation is particularly marked within workplaces (Martin and Roberts) and women are, on average, paid about three quarters of men’s hourly earnings. (Equal Opportunities Commission, 1986). In the former-socialist countries of the Eastern Europe the so-called „job feminization” meant the social devaluations of the jobs otherwise highly assessed-such as banking, top management positions and seniors executives in private or state-owned enterprises. This process has affected not only the wage level of women, but also the standard of qualification provided to them – despite the general legal framework, which stressed the existence of equality between men and women in the work place.

This is also the situation in Romania where, in the last sixteen years, a spectacular reintegration in the legal order took place. The country became a party to numerous international legal instruments and, at the same time, adopted provisions to bring its internal legislation in line with the requirements of the international conventions (Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, 2005). The principle of equality between the sexes is explicitly regulated under Article 4 of the Romanian Constitution (Constitutia Romaniei, 1992), and it is explicitly reflected in other laws such as Law Number 92/1992 regarding the organization of the judiciary and The Family Code (I.R.D.O., 1997). In terms of work relations, the Labor Code regulates the general principle of women’s right to occupy any position or jobs in accordance with their training, on fully equal terms with men (I.R.D.O., 1997). Without doubts, in Romania there is a well-articulated and non-discriminatory de jure framework.

Statistical data on the evolution of the population structure according to sex shows that in the period 1990-2000, the percentage of women in the total population has constantly exceeded 50%. According to the data of the 2002 Romanian Census the percentage of men and women were 52% and 48% for women and men, respectively (CNS, 2001). Women represent the largest share (51.6%) of the population able to work (over the age of 15) but they only represent 54.1% of the employed population (C.N.S., 2001). In terms of the social categories in which persons are employed, women work primarily in agriculture, in processing industry, commerce, health and education (C.N.S., U.N.D.P., 1999). The number of employed women has increased in the fields of public administration, electric and thermal energy, gas and water, financial, banking and insurance activities, hotels and restaurants, while reductions in the number of employed women have been noticed in sectors such as real estate transactions, transport and deposing, and the extractive industry. In 1998, women comprised 25% of employers and were mostly involved in commercial activities (U.N.D.P., 1999). In the category of managers and superior public officials in public administration and economic units, the number of women represented is generally four times less than the number of men (UNDP, 2000).

The professional segregation of women, demonstrated by the existence of models of occupation differentiated by gender, have lead to disparities between incomes, even though the principle of equal pay for equal work is legally accepted. It has been noticed that women are well represented in fields in which the income is generally low. Thus, the segregation of the work force is perpetuated to women’s disadvantage both horizontally and vertically; this explains the feminization of poverty as a characteristic of the period of transition toward the market economy. The same is true about Romania, where studies show that legal provision on non-discrimination in the matter of equal pay for equal work are not always enforced (National Institute of Research in the Field of Labor and Social Protection, 2000). As the sociological surveys showed, the distribution of the average gross salary emphasizes the existence of remuneration disparities between the two sexes in the national economy level (BOP, Waves 2002 and 2003). Thus, the average gross salary for women is systematically lower than men’s. The same discrepancy results from discriminatory practices with an indirect effect on the condition of women, meaning that girls are directed toward professions that are traditionally poorly paid. A PHARE report from 1998 (INS-PHARE, 2001) also concluded that women have lower wages than men even in the „feminized” areas of employment and that employers always behave in an overtly discriminatory fashion by unfairly dismissing women from employment or, alternatively, by employing cheaper female labor.

Statistics show that in Romania there are more women than men in sectors financed by the state budget (C.N.S., 2001): for example, education, health, social services, trade, hotels and restaurants and light industry. In those activities, the earnings are generally about up to one third lower than the average salary level in the economy as a whole. Men prevail in the better-remunerated sectors, such as mining and quarrying, energy, metallurgy, chemistry, transport and communications (C.N.S., 2001). Exceptions include the financial, banking and insurance institutions, with the highest level of salaries (over 2,5 times higher than the national average), in which women predominate. In those sectors where women prevail, such as trade, tourism, public administration, education and health, it was found that their average gross salary is lower than the sector average (INS – PHARE, 2001, C.N.S., 2001). The women/men remuneration report for 2000-2001, per branch of activity, has registered an unequal evolution, mainly due to the efficiency of the economic activities and to the proportion of women employed in top management or as highly specialized staff (C.N.S., 2001). According to the results of an inquiry into the cost of the work force 1994-1998, men’s average salary was higher, by 9-12% and 25-32%, than women’s average salary. As empirical studies have shown the labor markets in Romania are significantly structured by both sexual segregation and by locality. Thus, the geographical regions where women were employed in „feminized” jobs also recorded the lower level of women’s salary, which represents about two thirds of the medium Romanian salary (BOP, Waves 2002 and 2003).

Research objectives

The objective of the analysis presented in this paper was:

1. The assessment of the studied population’s level of knowledge regarding the rights women have on the work-place market;

2. The identification of the problems regarding the women’s access to the work-force market; 3. The assessment of the level of knowledge of women’s economic opportunities;

4. The identification of the degree of involvement and risk assumed at the individual level;

5. The identification of real (present and future) difficulties, as they are perceived by the population considered.

Methodology and types of data

The research methodology included secondary analysis on quantitative and qualitative data.

1. Quantitative data analysis

This method consists in analyzing data gathered in various social surveys which are related either to the gender issue or to the labor force problems. We refer here to the database of „Barometer of Gender” – made in 2000 by The Soros Foundation – and the Barometer of Public Opinion made also by The Soros Foundation (BOP, Waves 2002 and 2003). The techniques to present the results are frequency analysis of the survey data.

2. The qualitative data analysis

The analysis was made on the debates which took place during eight focus-group sessions in various locations from Romania (Alexandria, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Reşiţa, Satu Mare, Târgu Mureş, Roman, Bârlad, Năvodari). The main focus was on the analysis of the problems related to the conditions of the women’s access at the work-place market (knowledge of rights, their enactment, facing the discriminatory employment practices etc.). The techniques to present the results are discourse analysis and content analysis of the focus-group discussions.

Каталог: sociolabswu -> izsledvanija
izsledvanija -> Катедра „социология” икономика и социология
izsledvanija -> Съдържание религия, етнос, цивилизация
izsledvanija -> Will Secular Religions continue in the future?
izsledvanija -> Правни аспекти на религиозната свобода в българия пламена Попова

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