As civic participation is on the rise in Romania, women’s activism has become more visible, too.
At a time when civic participation is on the rise in Romania, going through a period of revival, women's activism has become increasingly visible, too. Women's civic participation has been growing, just like the number of women entrepreneurs and their participation in the political life.
The book market has noticed this development too, and has started focusing on the phenomenon. In 2011, the economist and politician Andreea Paul-Vass coordinated the publishing at POLIROM of three volumes, in which several women tell the stories of their success, be it in politics, economy or in terms of civic activism. The latest volume, titled "Women's Civic Power" has been launched this year and is evidence of the fact that women are the majority in the NGO sector, as Andreea Paul-Vass also told us:
"The volume 'Women's Political Power' was published in 2011, telling stories about women from all political parties. The second volume was released in 2016, titled 'Women's Economic Power', to which exceptional entrepreneurs contributed. So, the year 2018 was the right time to highlight the civic spirit in women. Every time one of the three volumes was published, I was working in that very field. That is why I was so impressed listening to the stories of these great women, who dared to activate their civic spirit. We, as women, have this natural drive and instinct to restore balance, to improve society, to right the wrong. In civil society, women make up the largest group. On the map of social innovators, 53% of those who set up and run NGOs are women. As regards entrepreneurship, things are not that good, but they are not bad either. One in three entrepreneurs today is a woman. As regards politics, the situation is different from that in politics or civil society. When 'Women's Political Power' was published, approximately 10% of the members of Parliament were women. But, less than a decade on, the number of women in Parliament has doubled."
Journalist Daniela Palade Teodorescu, a journalist with the Cariere magazine offers an explanation for why women are so involved in this field in such great numbers in Romania:
"These women are proof that civic power exists. Many of them are, for instance, mothers and daughters who have decided not to keep complaining that their loved ones are ill and the state does nothing to help them. They have just said: 'I am the change. There is no point in waiting for this system to give me something, and expecting change from the top. I am going to militate for the rights of my children, of my parents, of all those who suffer.' In fact, this book is about what I like to call 'the power of vulnerability'. It's about women who've been faced with critical situations, but who have managed to overcome them and decided it was high time they started doing something to help the others too. There are many anonymous heroines, women who have made tremendous efforts without anybody knowing and who actually don't understand why people should talk about them. They believe that they are doing what they are doing because they have to. But, still, the fact that they are now in the limelight has motivated them even more, because they have received confirmation that what they do is right, so they keep going."
The stories of the 100 women published in 'Women's Civic Power' is also proof of women's solidarity. "The value of a woman also lies in the number of other women they help stand up on their own" one of the protagonists says in the book. Here is Daniela Palade Teodorescu again:
"When you have an autistic child and are referred to one doctor and then to another and sent from one hospital to another and when your child gets the wrong diagnosis you say you cannot continue this way and that you must do something. You ask yourself, 'What's this child going to do in life? Who's going to take care of him or her? And social networks have fostered the setting up of communities of people with the same needs, which can have greater power."
By and large Romania's non-governmental sector is well developed; and that, according to experts, stands proof of the government's inability to deal with some issues. The government doesn't get involved in issues of great interest for society and doesn't allow them any funding, says feminist Mihaela Miroiu, a professor at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies:
"Another process, which is happening in Romania and which the aforementioned book deals with, is the fact that an NGO will in time turn into a genuine professional organisation, which means that the people working there will become experts, honing skills in their fields of activity. While the political field is characterised by amateurishness, incompetence and deceit, the non-governmental sector is producing experts. So there is a societal rift, but the good news is that at least one part of this rift runs smoothly and that's the civic entrepreneurship."
A 2017 survey of the NGO sector in Romania carried by the Foundation for Civil Society Development showed that out of the 88,000 existing NGOs only 42,000 were in fact active.
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