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In Romania, Vestiges of Communism Boost Women in Tech
Compared to the rest of Europe, Romania has the highest proportion of girls studying an IT related field at high school and university level.
Credit: Motherboard
"Often, the best man for a job is a woman," says Mihaela Lazar, a Romanian developer who has been coding for over 40 years. "At the university, where I studied computer science applied in economics, there were 20 girls in my class, and only four boys," she says.
Back then, in communist Romania, women scientists, engineers, crane operators, and welders were featured in newspapers and magazines. There was officially no distinction between men and women on the job market. In 1970, 75 percent of the employable Romanian women had a job. At the same time, in the United States, just 52.7 of the women had work experience full-time or part-time.
Communism, which lasted in Romania for 43 years until 1989, is hardly a time worth longing for. Yet, some lessons may be drawn from it—and one of them is gender equality.
From Motherboard
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