Senate President Dragu: Number of abused women increased during pandemic, measures in public policies needed

Senate President Anca Dragu said that the number of abused women has increased in the pandemic, therefore measures must be taken at the level of public policies.

"During the pandemic we see a worrying increase in the number of abused women. Domestic violence is a very serious problem in Romania. (...) A study by the Faculty of Medicine shows that in the first three months of the pandemic, in 2020, the number of women who arrived with polytraumas at the hospital is four times higher than before the pandemic. These figures worry us. (...) This is an alarm signal that something needs to be don at the public policy level," Anca Dragu told a debate on "Woman's transformation, from social inclusion to leadership," organised by the French Institute.

According to the President of the Senate, public policies mean awareness, a continuous effort to bring up the issue of gender difference, violence against women, to create mentalities.

"We need state institutions to act, civil society, NGOs, we need the law, but it somehow comes in the end. We can write an article of law, 'From tomorrow women are equal to men', but it cannot be applied, we have to create a whole mechanism," explained Anca Dragu.

According to her, women were more affected than men in the pandemic from other points of view as well. Anca Dragu mentioned that more than 80% of the doctors and nurses in Romania are women, and they "carried the burden" of the pandemic.

She specified that Romania ranks 26th out of 28 in the EU in terms of the gender equality index.

"The gender equality index places us in a not very honorable place, in 26th place out of 28 EU member states. We are better at issues related to the pay gap between women and men, here we have a difference of only 3%, but I looked a little deeper into these figures and it is a little misleading situation, because we have the public sector dominant there, where we have a lot of women and as such somehow blur these figures, but if we look at specific areas, like the political one, then the gender difference is very accentuated," said Anca Dragu.

In her turn, French Ambassador to Romania Laurence Auer brought to mind that in 2015 the EU Council called on member states to adopt measures for equality between women and men and to increase women's representation in political and economic decision-making.

Laurence Auer believes that the issue of equality between women and men cannot be addressed only by an article of law, but must take into account the prejudice, training, education ensemble.

She stressed that France needed an "arsenal of measures" to implement the Strategy for Feminist Diplomacy and Equality, and that prejudice had to be prevented.

"I think this point is very, very important today. We need to reflect systematically on what prejudice at work means and (...) all forms of violence mean," Laurence Auer added.