Romania sees EU's steepest decline in women's leadership share in large caps

Romania saw the steepest decline in the share of women in the management of large companies listed on the stock exchange, which dropped more than 10 percentage points between 2010 and 2017, in stark contradiction with the European trends, Andreea Paul, president of the Competitiveness Initiative (INACO), said in a release. 

"In countries such as France, Italy, Belgium or Germany, the representation of women has improved significantly. Why is that? Because they introduced mandatory minimum gender quotas for the boards of large listed companies, standing at 40, 35 or 33 percent, the European Institute for Gender Equality tells us," explained Andreea Paul. 

According to the cited source, in the last three years one in four women managers has been replaced by a man in Romania, while in the EU the share of female managers has been quasi-constant. Thus, whereas in the EU women's representation dropped by one percentage point between 2014 and 2017, in Romania the decline was of over 11 percent in the same period. Whereas in 2014, 41 percent of the managers in Romania were women, above the EU average of 35 percent, in 2017 there were only 30 percent women managers in Romania, below the EU average of 34 percent. 

"Romania is one of the European countries with the lowest official women employment rates, but also one of the countries with the smallest gender pay gaps in the EU. What surprises me now is to see a significant setback in European official data, a significant decline in the representation of women in managerial positions in Romania as compared to 2014 (when we were above the EU average), although women are more educated and prevail among Romanians with higher education. Do we, in Romania, trust female management less? I'm rather of the opinion that these are times when the small businesses where women were able to more easily accede to managerial positions are shutting down under the assault of large companies. In the end, it's the male managers who dominate. The bigger the size of the companies, the more women's representation in decision-making positions decreases," says the INACO president.