Gender inequalities in labor market participation. How does Romania compare to other European Union countries?

Romania has one of the lowest employment rates among European Union countries, both for women (45.4%) and men (62.7%), according to Eurostat data from 2022, but for women, the employment rate is among the lowest in Europe, and the gender gap is among the highest (approximately 17 percent). This reflects the fact that, among the working-age population in Romania, fewer women than men are officially employed.

The highest employment rate among women is in the Netherlands (68.1%), followed by Estonia (67%), Sweden (65.9%), and Denmark (65%). According to Eurostat data, similar trends are also seen in male employment, with the highest rates recorded in Western and Northern European countries.

The gender-differentiated employment rate is relevant to the overall picture of gender equality in the labor market. Active participation in working life is influenced by social protection and gender equality policies that ensure equal access for men and women to the labor market. Data from surveys conducted by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) (2022) on gender equality in unpaid work explore the distribution of time spent daily on unpaid household activities. Why is the gender division of domestic work relevant when talking about equal access to the labor market? The time spent on household work changes the rate of active participation in the labor market and future career choices. The traditional model of gender division in personal family life assigns women the role of primary caregiver for dependents, such as children, the elderly, or people with disabilities. When it comes to earning the main income and advancing in their careers, men are assigned a passive role in the household. This can be seen in EIGE data, where women in Romania have the highest rate of unpaid household work, i.e., caregiving, cooking, cleaning, laundry, but also tasks related to home maintenance and planning household activities.

In 2022, according to EIGE, 87% of women in Romania reported that they were involved in domestic work on a daily basis, with Germany at the opposite end of the spectrum at 49% and Luxembourg at 54%. The large difference between women and men in terms of daily participation in household work places Romania well above the European Union average, alongside the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, and Hungary, where the differences between women and men are over 25%. In correlation with a predominantly low female employment rate, the data reinforce the hypothesis of traditional gender division, which places women in the position of primary caregiver for the family and men in the position of breadwinner.

What does the employment rate tell us when we analyze it together with gender differences in pay? According to Eurostat data from 2022, Romania ranks among the leading European Union countries, with one of the smallest gender pay gaps, at only 4.5%, alongside Italy (4.3%) and Belgium (5%), but far behind Western countries, where the high rate of gender pay gap is well known. For example, Germany has a 17.7% pay gap between men and women with employment contracts. Compared to Romania, which has a low employment rate, Germany's rate is correlated with a high employment rate among men (71.7%) and women (63.4%).

A negative gender pay gap means that, on average, women's earnings are similar to those of men. However, the data should be interpreted with skepticism when the employment rate for women is much lower than that for men, as is the case in Romania. The content of women's work and the sector in which they work are often different from those of men. For example, the hierarchy of positions within organizations influences the level of pay. In the case of men, if we look at highly skilled sectors such as technology, IT, or engineering, men occupy, on average, better-paid jobs because they are more likely than women to be in management positions. At the other end of the spectrum, women occupy positions that are generally lower paid, in sectors such as care, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, retail, and food services. Last but not least, many women choose jobs with flexible working arrangements, part-time or teleworking because of their responsibilities in the household and in raising children.

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Data processing and text design: Delia Bădoi

Infographic: Pascalone Media SRL