Romania has to reach Europe’s level in the field of women’s rights education

Ladies and gentlemen,

Tomorrow is March 8th, the day we officially celebrate women. I could talk about how strong we are, that we are the engine of society and that the Romanian society owes a lot to mothers and wives who balance family life with a successful career.

And it’s true. But I think it’s time to go further than that. I think the time has come for Romania to finally reach Europe in the field of women’s rights education.

In 1995, Hillary Clinton said in a famous speech that women’s rights are human rights. It’s been 22 years since then. And yet, in Romania in 2017, we must constantly remember this. Because in Romania in 2017, women’s rights are still not taken seriously.

Women’s rights are not limited to maternity leave and childcare allowance. Women’s rights are not just about praising them for achievements in the areas that are still seen as belonging to men, such as entrepreneurship.

In Romania, there is still a big difference between the domestic responsibilities assumed by women and men. Men who have a job spend an average of 9 hours a week on household chores. Women who have a job spend 26 hours a week. That is about 4 hours each day on unpaid responsibilities, such as household chores or raising children. Women in Romania do not complain, but they do not ask for more either. That’s because they were not taught to claim their rights.

Having women in politics is a normal thing in the 21st century.

There is no need for special women’s organizations of political parties. All the more so since it is proven that they can work side by side with men.

I am one of the 90 women present in the Romanian Parliament, representing 20% ​​today, with 9 percentage points more than in the previous term (11%). What I want to point out is that there has been progress, but it needs to be sustained. From a personal point of view, when I chose the path of an MP, I started with a few exceptions to the rule. I had no political experience and there were more than a few who said to me “On top of that, you are also a woman, your chances are thus lower”. However, I told myself that I want to do it and that I can do it. Success, after all, is the combination of confidence, hard work, perseverance and talent. And the result is visible today, here, in the presidium in front of you.

Women’s rights should not mean that only women fight for them. If we, the elected members of the country, do not set an example of inclusion, if we do not change the way of approaching women’s issues at a political level, we will not be able to take the necessary measures at the legislative level, at the institutional level and implicitly at a societal level.

It is our responsibility to change the mindsets and lives of women in Romania. 

It is our responsibility, especially of the women as well as the men in the Parliament of this country, to change the mindsets and lives of women in Romania. It is our responsibility to come up with legislation that ensures not only their protection, but also a climate in which equality between women and men is cultivated early on. It is our responsibility to build a country in which our children learn their rights as a child so that they can properly apply them later. A country where our girls know they are strong and courageous and deserve every chance and opportunity to fulfill their dreams.

A country where men – entrepreneurs, members of the Parliament, ministers – will also be asked how they combine their family life with their career, and politicians will also be asked during the election campaigns where they buy their shoes, ties, buttons, etc.

A country in which a strong woman, a female entrepreneur, a woman politician or a company’s female president are no longer an exception, but normal.