In 2014, the media gave extensive coverage
\nto an extremely serious case. An 18-year-old girl from Valeni in Vaslui County,
\neastern Romania, was raped by seven young men. After the magistrates ruled for
\nthe arrest of the aggressors, the reactions of the community were soon to
\nappear. Paradoxically, there were quite a few people who sided with the
\naggressors, saying the victim destroyed seven families and she had
\ninstigated the boys to rape her. Sexist and gender discriminatory attitudes
\nare however present in higher circles as well, even in the European Parliament,
\nwhere a Polish MP said women should earn less than men, because they are
\nweaker, smaller and less intelligent. A similar statement was made by a
\nprominent Romanian neurosurgeon and politician who said women are not made for
\nsurgery. And, just because in March women usually benefit from some extra
\nattention, several brands came up with surprises. One of them was offered by a
\nfamous bakery chain, which promoted specialities such as Croque Maid and
\nCroque Monsieur. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Andreea Braga, from the FILIA centre, an NGO which fights
\ngender inequality through activism, advocacy and research, explains: <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
I think all these things are possible because we are uneducated on the issue,
\nwe do not have an education to promote gender equality, the respect between
\nwomen and men, the history of feminism, women’s contribution to society,
\neverything that should make us aware of how toxic discrimination is. Apart from
\nthis type of messages sent by opinion formers, we also identify more
\nconservative attitudes, which infringe upon women’s rights. It is the case of a
\nrecent march against abortion, which was staged in many cities across Romania
\nand which publicly stigmatised women for their right to make decisions relative
\nto their own bodies. Such events show us that we haven’t learnt anything from
\nRomania’s history. We shouldn’t forget that abortion was banned by the
\ncommunist regime and over 10,000 women died because of that, according to
\nofficial data. It is very clear that these conservative values are now
\ninfringing upon women’s rights and, furthermore, we lack an alternative at
\neducational level. We have laws, we have a Constitution which says we are all
\nequal, but in reality- and when I say that I also refer to statistics- there
\nare many inequalities. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
According to
\nstatistics, one in four women has been physically or sexually abused by her
\npartner at least once in their lifetime, and, according to recent reports
\nissued by the Public Ministry in 2013, 2014 and 2015, the number of victims is
\non the rise, by the year. Furthermore, if we take a look at the labour market,
\nwomen in Romania are paid less than men and they are less promoted than men.
\nRomania registers the third lowest female employment rate in the European
\nUnion, according to data issued by the World Bank. As Andreea Braga has said,
\nthe alternative to sexist mentalities and attitudes should be found in
\neducation. However, according to the conclusions reached by sociologists after
\nhaving analysed over 1,600 textbook illustrations, these images do not seem to
\nfavour gender equality, even if we refer to textbooks brought out in recent
\nyears. Cosima Rughinis, the initiator of this extensive research, says she and
\nthe other sociologists have taken into consideration two aspects: gender
\nrepresentation and the way in which technology is featured in illustrations, in
\nrelation to the two genders. In brief, the girls are beautiful, nice, dressed
\nup in pink, always holding a mirror or a doll. When they grow up, the doll is
\nreplaced by a baby, and the mirror by a pot. Boys, however, are allowed to be
\nrebel, to hold a sword, to conquer the space or discover chemical formulae. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cosima Rughinis:<\/p>\n
The problem is
\nthat reality is not like this. There are women who are electricians, engineers,
\nwho have chosen to become taxi drivers. Textbooks do not reflect reality, they
\nnarrow it. They do not help children see the world in which their mothers have
\njobs. On the contrary, they present a distorted image or an interpretation grid
\nthat does not match the world we live in. Textbooks should help broaden
\nchildren’s vision of the world they live in and encourage girls to have
\naspirations. But, as I said, not only that these textbooks do not help
\nchildren do that, they don’t even help
\nthem see the real world. We were not
\nsurprised to see that in the old textbooks, but we didn’t expect to see the
\nsame things in the new ones, published in the past years.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Illustrations are
\nsupported by content. In order to change the content, and here we talk about
\nliterature textbooks alone, those who make them should discover the fact that
\nthere are women writers too, many of them contemporary. Here is sociologist
\nCosima Rughinis again:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When we talk
\nabout schoolbooks, inequity is omnipresent. On the one hand, there is this
\ngeneric cultural sexism that were are all faced with and which has not been
\nformally acknowledged in Romania. On the other hand, if we think of the structure
\nof these schoolbooks, they include literary texts from the 19th
\ncentury. Texts that were mostly written by men, from their 19th
\ncentury perspective. One potential solution would be for these textbooks to
\ntake over pieces written by women, and some of these women should be
\ncontemporary writers. In conclusion, besides sexist representations,
\nschoolbooks include a lot of patriarchal representations, which were a common
\nplace in Romania one and half century ago. Look at the lesson on leadership in
\nthe civic education textbooks. There you can see the gender difference.
\nUsually, with just a very few exceptions, all these books present boys as
\nleaders.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But how does 19th
\ncentury mentality match with the current legislation in force Andreea Braga is
\nattempting an answer:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We have a law
\nand a strategy on equal chances for men and women. However, as long as there is
\nno political will to tackle gender equality as a priority, we will not be able
\nto fix much. And when I say priority, I’m also referring to certain types of
\nviolence that women are faced with, both in the public and in the private
\nsector. We are all aware of these issues, but they are always left outside the
\npublic discourse. It is quite rare that we see debates on how to set up more shelters
\nfor victims of domestic abuse, when there are 13 counties in this country where
\nsuch shelters do not exist at all. Or, we have legislative proposals that
\nencourage discrimination or job harassment, in the sense that when it first
\nhappens, the aggressor only gets a verbal warning. It is quite obvious that, in
\norder to trigger a structural change in society, we need education first and
\nforemost and as early as possible. Also, we need politicians who are well
\ninformed and aware of all these issues.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Discrimination against women is an issue still facing Romanian society<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":142305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[43609,31698],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-142304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-filia","tag-gender-equality"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n