Women Entrepreneurship in Romania: Evolutions and Challenges

Women Entrepreneurship in Romania: Evolutions and Challenges

Violeta Sima, Ileana Georgiana Gheorghe
Copyright: © 2017 |Pages: 9
DOI: 10.4018/IJSEM.2017070103
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Abstract

Worldwide, since the mid-1970s, entrepreneurship is a vector of economic and social development, stimulating innovation and change. In the first part, after the literature review, a general overview of the Romanian labor market and female employment and management and women entrepreneurs on it was performed. Concerning the business, the developments and the labor market in Romania, the authors find that women are underrepresented compared to the share they hold in total. In this respect, in addition to specific policy, measures to stimulate entrepreneurship are required.
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1. Literature Review

Entrepreneurship is related to the society development trend in terms of economic, demographic and social issues. Similarly, entrepreneurship is correlated to technical and technological progress, new jobs creation, reducing social inequalities and environmental protection. Globalization and economic crisis led to important changes in society; these changes are felt and on entrepreneurship level - entrepreneurship green appearance (Barreto, Ryan and Schmitt, 2009; Burke, 2009; Burke and Mattis, 2007; Helfat, Harris and Wolfson, 2006; Tarr-Whelan, 2009).

The results published in the first report of The Index of Women-Entrepreneurs shows that the female entrepreneurship is developing (Mastercard (MIWE), 2017 http://newsroom.mastercard.com/eu/files/2017/03/Report-Mastercard-Index-of-Women-Entrepreneurs-2017-Mar-3.pdf.

In the current entrepreneurial economy, that is knowledge based, women entrepreneurs play an important role. In this context, a significant increase in the number of business headed by women is observed (Burke and Mattis, 2005; Burke and Nelson, 2002).

It may be noted at the same time, that the successful economic model of women's entrepreneurship in Europe comes against a background of growing the entrepreneurial initiative as an important determinant of socio-economic development.

Among women, the entrepreneurial initiative has some specific features:

  • It represents a family tradition - in Austria and Spain.

  • It is supported heavily in terms of legislation - in Sweden, Belgium and the UK.

  • It is developing within the female social entrepreneurship - in Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Lithuania, Ireland, United Kingdom (Davidson and Fielden, 2003; Powell, 2010).

In Romania, the development of women entrepreneurship is correlated with the evolution of the image of women in society, on the background of the changes taking place in the national culture and mentality. In this respect, Romania should develop a national strategy for entrepreneurship education specifically focused on women and young people, drawing on the successful business model of the female entrepreneurship in Europe.

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2. Women Entrepreneurs In Romania

On the Romanian labor market there are some specific factors playing a negative role on employment: inadequate institutional capacities, basic skills acquired during compulsory education inadequate to the new requirements of the labor market, inconsistencies of the qualifications offered by the education system and the requirements of the labor market, a difficult transition from school to work, low level of participation in adult education systems.

As in the case of other economies in the EU the labor market in Romania was affected by the global economic crisis, one of the effects being the sharp drop in the number of jobs. Thus, during January 2009 - April 2012, 530,000 stable jobs were lost in the Romanian economy.

Figure 1 shows the evolution of the unemployment rate in Romania compared to the EU-28, during 2008-2015. Thus, it appears that the unemployment rate in Romania is below the level recorded in the EU. In December 2016, the unemployment rate in Romania dropped to 5.5%, which represents a new minimum after the crisis began in 2008.

Also, the growth rates of the unemployment rate are lower in Romania than in the EU. The largest gap between Romania and the EU was registered in 2013 (3.8%), but the differences appear to become increasingly smaller, reaching 2.6% in 2015.

Figure 1.

The evolution of the unemployment rates in Romania vs. EU-28, 2008-2015 (Percentage of total population) (Source: Based on Eurostat)

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