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Sex Discrimination, Commuting, and the Role of Women in Rumanian Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

William Moskoff
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When the Communist Party took power in Rumania in 1944, it inherited a poor, agrarian society. In 1950, before the advent of planning, three-fourths of Rumania's labor force was still in agriculture; only 12 percent of the labor force was in the industrial sector. Per capita income for the country as a whole was the equivalent of thirty dollars and in agriculture it was close to twenty dollars. The new regime did not have to search very far for a general development model. It adopted the Soviet strategy of rapid economic growth through the priority development of heavy industry. Women have played a key role in this process; indeed, it may be argued that they form the linchpin of Rumanian growth strategy.

Type
Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 440 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1978

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References

1. Anuarul statistic al Republicii Socialiste Romania, 1975 (Bucharest, 1975), pp. 67 and 76 (hereafter cited as Anuarul).

2. Anuaral, 1975, pp. 51 and 56.

3. Anuaral, 1975, pp. 54 and 67.

4. Tamar Dobrin, “Integrarea femeii in viata social-economica contemporana,” Viitorul social, 4, no. 4 (1975): 634-41; Aneta, Spornic, Utilisarea eficientă a resurselor de muncă feminine in Româania (Bucharest, 1975), p. 105 Google Scholar. Intensive use of women in agriculture is not unique in Rumania. In Czechoslovakia, in 1975, women comprised 55 percent of the agricultural labor force, although in 1974 this figure was as low as 47 percent (Statistická roćenka ČSSR [Prague, various years]). In Rumania, the feminization of this sector has been carried to greater lengths than in any other East European country.

5. Constantin Ionescu, Omul, socetatea, socialismul (Bucharest, 1973), p. 101.

6. Vladimir, Trebici, Populaţia României şi cresterea economica (Bucharest, 1971), pp. 180, 22, 223Google Scholar.

7. This discussion is drawn from William Moskoff, “Pronatalist Policies in Romania,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, forthcoming.

8. This thesis has been rigorously developed by Gur Ofer, “Industrial Structure, Urbanization, and the Growth Strategy of Socialist Countries,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, no. 2 (May 1976): 219-44. Using cross-sectional data, he contends that given the level of development in the bloc countries one would expect a higher level of urbanization than actually exists, when market economies are used as a benchmark. From this he concludes that socialist planners have minimized the urban capital/labor ratio.

9. Ion, Blaga, Repartizarea teritoriala a forţelor de productie în România (Bucharest, 1974), p. 59 Google Scholar.

10. Ion, Blaga, “Probleme actuale ale urbanizarii in România,” Era socialists, no. 14 (1974), p. 34 Google Scholar.

11. Based on conversations during February 1976 with Dr. Josef Nemeth, agricultural attaché at the Hungarian embassy, Dr. Jerzy Rasinki, agricultural attaché at the Polish embassy, and a commercial officer at the embassy of the German Democratic Republic, all in Washington, D.C. Regrettably, Czechoslovakian data are unclear. Ota Sik says that in the mid-1960s 2, 300, 000 Czechs commuted to work. This would be about 33 percent of the 1966 labor force. However, I cannot tell whether this is confined to those who commute from villages to cities (see Ota, Sik, Czechoslovakia: The Bureaucratic Economy [White Plains, N.Y., 1972], p. 93 Google Scholar).

12. Interview with Maria Fulea and Marcia Cobianu, Center for Sociological Research, Bucharest, April 29, 1976.

13. Interview with Honorina Cozacu, Center for Sociological Research, Bucharest, April 30, 1976.

14. Anuarul, 1975, p. 76.

15. Maria Fulea, “Motivaţii; sociale şi economice ale migratiunii forţei de muncâ din C.A.P.,” Viitorul social, 1, no. 1 (1972): 160. She also indicated to me that the desire to migrate from state farms to the city is less intense because of the stable and higher income of state farmers.

16. Maria Fulea, “Aspecte ale mobilitatii populatiei rurale,” Viitorul social, 2, no. 3 (1973): 635; Fulea, “Motivaţii sociale,” p. 160; and interview with Fulea and Cobianu, May 11, 1976.

17. Interview with Cozacu, April 31, 1976.

18. Interview with Fulea and Cobianu, April 29, 1976.

19. Interview “with Professor Dr. Petre Burloiu, May 6, 1976.

20. Costin Stefanescu, “Probleme sociale şi profesionale ale femeilor salariate din localitaţile periurbane,” in Statutul social al femeilor salariate (Bucharest, 1971), p. 134,

21. Interview with Fulea and Cobianu, April 29, 1976.

22. Two studies which empirically document this problem are Francisc, Albert, Dialog cu timpul liber (Bucharest, 1970)Google Scholar, and Constantin Ionescu, “Bugetul de timp al muncitorilor,” Lupta de clasa, 1967, no. 8, pp. 64-71.

23. Sebestyen, G. and Veiser, L., “Evolutia procesului de încadrare in muncâ a femeilor din România,” in Sociologie in acţiune (Jassy, 1972), p. 234 Google Scholar. The data are from the late sixties.

24. Interview with Fulea and Cobianu, April 29, 1976.

25. Directives of the Eleventh Congress of the Romanian Communist Party Concerning the 1976-1980 Five-Year Plan and the Guidelines for Romania's Economic and Social Development Over the 1981-1990 Period (Bucharest, 1975), pp. 72-73.

26. Interview with Burloiu, May 6, 1976.

27. Manea, Manescu, Raising the Living Standard of the Population—Central Goal of Romania's Socio-Economic Development Strategy (Bucharest, 1973), p. 17 Google Scholar.

28. Anuarul, 1970 (Bucharest, 1970) and Anuarul, 1975; Investiţii-constructii in RSR (Bucharest, 1966).

29. Interview with Aneta Spornic, June 7, 1976. In 1972, 80 percent of the agricultural population was in cooperatives and 6 percent .in state agricultural units. The remaining 14 percent was in individual households (see Vida Bidilean, “Forţa de muscă din agricultura şi utilizarea ei raţionala,” in Politica economica a Partidul Comunist, Român agricultura [Bucharest, 1972], p. 125).

30. The interviews were conducted in June 1976 by a third-year sociology class from the University of Bucharest taught by Dr. Natalie Damian. The questionnaire on which the interviews were based is largely my own instrument and has been incorporated by the Rumanian Center for Sociological Research into a larger study on demographic behavior. A fuller exploration of the issues raised here can be found in William Moskoff, “The Problem of the ‘Double-Burden’ in Romania,” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, forthcoming.

31. Albert, , Dialog cu titnpul liber, p. 72 Google Scholar.

32. Natalia Popa, “Idealul profesional şi probleme vieţii de familie,” in Statutul social al femeilor salariate, p. 145.

33. Spornic, , Utilizarea eficientă a resurselor, p. 41 Google Scholar.

34. Ana, Gluvacov, Afirmarea fetnei în viata societaţii (Bucharest, 1975), pp. 89–91 Google Scholar. Rumania ratified the International Labor Organization equal pay convention in 1955.

35. Interview with Burloiu, May 6, 1976.

36. Nicolae Ceauşescu, “Reportul Comitetuliu Central al Partidului Comunist Român cu privire la activitatea P.C.R. in perioda dintre Congresul al IX-lea şi Congresul al X-lea şi sarcinile de viitor ale partidului,” August 6, 1969, p. 62.

37. Gheorghe Vasilichi, “Condiţia socială a femeii,” Era socialists, no. 5 (1973), p. 13.

38. Calculated from Anuarul, various years; Anuarul demographic al RSR (Bucharest, 1974), p. 23.

39. In my June 7, 1976 interview with Spornic, she said that sometimes managers do not have a choice of which sex they get; the central allocation obliges them to take what labor they have been assigned.

40. Unfortunately, there are no aggregate labor force turnover data published.

41. Nomenclatorul meseriilor, specialitatovilor şi funcţiilor în care pot fi încadrate femei (Bucharest, 1975).

42. Interview with Spornic, June 7, 1976.

43. The discussion on labor laws is taken from Mihai, Moldoveanu, Indrumar de legislate a tnuncii (Bucharest, 1973), pp. 225–26 Google Scholar. Such laws are rapidly being struck down in the United States as being in violation of the civil rights of women.

44. Spornic, , Utilizarea eficientă a resurselor, p. 50 Google Scholar.

45. Vasilichi, “Condiţia sociala a femeii,” p. 13.

46. Constantin Ionescu and Oscar, Hoffman, Clasa muncitoare din Republica Socialista România (Bucharest, 1974), p. 104 Google Scholar.

47. Anuarul, 197S, pp. 428-29.

48. Vasilichi, “Condiţia sociala a femeii,” p. 13.

49. Dimitru, Vacariu, “Orientarea şi pregatirea profesionala a forfei de munca feminine,” in Statutul social al femeilor salariate, pp. 34–35Google Scholar.

50. Interview with Burloiu, May 26, 1976.

51. Ibid.

52. Spornic, , Utilisarea eficientă a resurselor, p. 85 Google Scholar.

53. Hoffman, Ionescu and, Clasa muncitoare, p. 104 Google Scholar.

54. Interviews with Oscar Hoffman, Center for Sociological Research, Bucharest, May 4, 1976, and with Burloiu, May 6, 1976.

55. Alton, Thad P. et al., Economic Growth in Eastern Europe 1965-1975, Research Project on National Income in East Central Europe (New York, 1976)Google Scholar.

56. Anmrul, 1976 (Bucharest, 1976), p. 54.

57. Vasilichi, “Condiţia sociala a femeii,” p. 13.

58. It is possible, of course, that a more equitable division of household labor would persuade more women to commute and hence lessen the problems caused by a greater reluctance of men to do so.