A manaa‚¬a„¢s world? Businesswomen debate the glass ceiling in Romania

Sisters are doing it for themselves nowadays. Stories of discrimination seem to be fewer, with today’s woman holding important positions on the local market. Art, philanthropy, furniture, the car market, shipping, communication, IT and beauty are only some of the domains in which women wear the trousers. Their stories are of professional success, in a world where gender discrimination is declining – it’s all about big ambition and excellent skills. But how easy was it really for these women to reach their current positions, what have they learned and what advice do they have for those who wish to follow their lead? BR spoke to professionals from a myriad of backgrounds to find out.

Corina Dumitrescu

Despite the 21st century being well underway, women still face numerous challenges in order to attain top management positions. Livia Aninosanu, programs director at CPE, the Center for Partnership and Equality, told BR, “Women, the major risk group for poor work-life balance, have been very much affected by the economic climate, as they tend to be employed in vulnerable fields and in vulnerable jobs. Women in Romania often find themselves in the position of having two jobs, as they also end up having to do domestic chores. Studies have shown that Romania is the number one country ranked by the time spent on housework.” Today’s women therefore shoulder a double workload: their paying job and managing their homes.

But several programs are encouraging women to make a stand for themselves and start their own business. One such, Antreprenoriatul la feminin (Entrepreneurship for Women), co-financed with European funds, aims to inform women, aid their professional development and give them equal access on the labor market in Romania. The program targets 1,008 women intending to start a business or simply develop their entrepreneurial skills and will last for 32 months. Some of its total value of EUR 4,113,810 will also go into getting a better assessment of the market right now, since the most recent numbers on local female entrepreneurship date back to 2001.

With a similar ambition, Women in Business (Femei in Afaceri) is an association addressing female professionals, recently set up by local entrepreneur Alice Botnarenco. She founded the association to help female entrepreneurs, either at the start of their businesses or at the idea stage. “We wish to involve experienced women – who can inspire others through their stories of successful businesses – in the association’s activities,” Botnarenco told BR. The website lists such success stories. One of the association’s first projects was networking meetings, built around a certain theme (finding a good lawyer for example). And there is a social networking component: the idea of Women in Business emerged on the internet, in September 2009, on Facebook and Linkedin, Botnarenco says, and now groups on these sites give specialists’ answers to questions posted on entrepreneurship.

The art and beauty of business

Irina Wagner, the owner of a business selling hand-painted porcelain along with other types of personalized items, has a background in finance, logistics, project management and marketing, and is a graduate of the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and of an MBA program. She runs the Wagner business with her sister. The most challenging part of Wagner’s professional life so far may come as a surprise: “I think that the most difficult part of my career (as an employed woman) was to interact with other women, who were generally higher up the hierarchy of management than me. There was tension, born from the spirit of competition and conflict between generations. People above a certain age tend to think they know everything and hardly listen to young people.”

Discrimination has affected Wagner, but only in a positive manner and on account of her intellect, she notes with amusement. But men were not the source. “I think that men can be allies or appropriate managers to women in business and the chemistry of these relationships can often lead to positive results. Again, the only people I admire professionally are men, who were also my mentors at a certain time.” Wagner’s experience suggests that it is women who discriminate against other women. However, women can also collaborate amicably, she adds. “Since I represent my own business, because we are dealing with the beautiful arts, women are naturally our customers. With no competition, but only shared interest in the beauty of porcelain, the relationships are generally harmonious.”

The only discrimination that Wagner confesses to have truly endured relates to her age, not her gender. “I have never felt negative gender discrimination, but maybe on account of my age. Romania is a country that respects white hair and all that comes with it in a management position.”

So how do the genders square up in management positions? “From what I’ve seen so far, male managers leave their emotions and feelings aside and take decisions more easily and in a more business-focused way.” Women, she continues, are better planners, respect deadlines more, and are more “emotional, moody, intuitive, empathic, creative, always competitive and human.” Sometimes women seem to prefer finding the right spouse and starting a family, because of the education they have received which still guides them towards that. What’s more, Wagner continues, “Only two-three types of women are promoted by the media, all retouched in Photoshop, forever happy, beautiful and carefree. The media promotes these images and girls want to reach the results directly and from very early ages. Consequentially, there comes disappointment and lack of focus on self-made careers.”

Of course, not everyone buys into these images. Manuela Plapcianu, CEO of Artmark auction house, has put a lot of focus on her education, simply because, she says, learning is a part of “reinventing myself and constantly exploring and developing new abilities.” She has achieved or graduated from the Faculty of Energetics, a banking college, an Executive MBA with Washington University / Asebuss, a certification in Business Excellence and coaching with Columbia University. Before becoming involved in the art business, she worked for 15 years in banking and held various management positions, culminating with that of CEO.

Career or family? Plapcianu believes that it can be a false choice. “When one enjoys what one’s doing, one identifies fully with one’s projects. Consequently there can be no dichotomy between one’s personal and professional life or between the boardroom woman and the weekend woman. You can’t have certain faults or qualities half the day and the opposite ones for the other half.” Discrimination has never been an issue on a personal level, she adds, although the wider picture is different. “I have faced a sort of ‘national’ discrimination and received various signals that I belonged to a minority culture, especially in the 90s.” When it comes to gender differences, Plapcianu believes that “there are no female managers and male managers. There are successful managers and failed ones.”

Another well known woman manager is Camelia Sucu, owner of the luxury furniture retailer Class Living. Sucu has a background in medicine, having graduated from the Carol Davila University of General Medicine in Bucharest and even practiced at Victor Babes Hospital in Bucharest for three years as a general physician in the early 90s, she reveals. But she became co-founder and owner, with her business partner at the time, of the Mobexpert Group, and later took over Class Mob and rebranded it as Class Living. In 2006, she was nominated a member of the Leading Women of the World Association and granted a most successful businesswoman award in 2006. She puts a lot of focus on equal gender opportunities in her company. “In terms of female empowerment, my faith in the capabilities of women is proved by my willingness to delegate and empower women as managers in my company. Fifty percent of them are women.”

Rucsandra Hurezeanu, beauty firm Ivatherm’s founder and GM, is another prominent female figure on the local market. Coming from a family of medics, Hurezeanu followed suit, graduating from medical school and then taking a pharmaceutical marketing master’s at Ecole Superieur de Commerce de Paris. Afterwards, she took an EMBA and obtained her PhD in infectious medicine. After experience in the local and French pharmaceutical industries, she founded her own firm of beauty products, based on thermal water extracted locally from the Herculane source. She has not faced discrimination, she says. “The success of a brand or a business-focused value is appreciated, regardless of the gender of the person at the top. Whether you’re a man or woman, you need the same leadership and negotiating skills, the same knowledge on which business strategies are founded, as well as relationships with partners, colleagues and adversaries.” Ivatherm, probably in large part due to its profile, is mostly formed of women and, importantly, women managers, adds Hurezeanu.

Drawing on her experience in France, Hurezeanu recollects, “Women are extremely appreciated in French culture, and my years spent in Paris gave me a lot of confidence in my abilities and capacities. French women are independent and interested in their careers, while displaying exuberance and feminine charm.” Sadly, not all women enjoy such esteem. In Ukraine, where Hurezeanu recently began a collaboration, “There is a business environment undoubtedly dominated by men.” Locally, success involves “effort and patience” and knowing one’s goals from the earliest years of one’s career.

Two expats, owners of “the first Greek gallery in Bucharest”, Eleni Skiadopoulou and Melina Krokou, also shared their experience as female managers with BR. Skiadopoulou has a background in photography and English literature, which she studied in London, while Krokou studied Public Relations in France. Throughout their work with female Romanian artists, the two have been impressed with their perseverance. What they say to young women across Romania is that “professional success comes by itself if you are dedicated enough to what you do. It’s not something you have to aim for; it’s the result of your commitment and your work.” Moreover, role models should not only be sought in the contemporary world, as one can also find them “in history or in books”.

Aiding future professionals

Tincuta Baltag, general manager of the Dinu Patriciu Foundation, a local NGO with an annual budget of USD 7 million dedicated to the support of the local education system, has an education background, but mostly considers herself to be self-taught. “I learn a lot from my constant reading, from the people I meet and the situations I encounter.” With a very diverse career, she confesses to having had one goal. “I have had the same major concern: being involved in social projects and encouraging others to join in social activities.”

Barriers have been an issue for Baltag in the shape of her own perception and “initial lack of confidence”. She also believes that in order to reach her current professional standing, she has had to put a lot of focus on work. “I think I have always worked harder than most men I know. It was something I thought I had to do in order to gain experience but also trust and reputation.”

Baltag flags up an interesting phenomenon – and one not limited to Romania. “If we look at the academic results in schools, we notice that girls do, on average, better than boys. We also have more young women graduating from university than men. And yet, when we look at the labor market, we see far too few women reaching top management positions.” This educational ambition is perhaps because women have only had access to schooling relatively recently, compared to men, Plapcianu suggests. “The majority of women started to study less than 100 years ago while men’s educational programs have a history going back more than 2,000 years.” Somewhere along the way, however, women lose the momentum they had in school.

In Romanian society, which is very traditional, says Baltag, “there is quite strong opposition to women pursuing a career. In fact, some say that you cannot be a good wife and mother and a top professional at the same time. Women who do not stay home to raise children are sometimes dismissed as bad mothers.” Fathers who work are not subject to the same criticism. The mother of a six-year-old, with a second baby on the way, Baltag believes that it all comes down to time management and a good partner to achieve a balance between family and career. “If you can divide your time between family and work efficiently and no one loses out, you can definitely achieve both. Also, if you have a partner that assumes his own responsibilities in the family and is not appalled by having to participate in housework, then everything is easier.” Moreover, in order to achieve success in their careers, Baltag advises young women to “take it slowly, one step at a time”. She adds, “It does not help to be named a manager immediately after graduation: it might be better to start with an entry-level position, learn, study and prove your value.”

Working in the communication industry, be it in PR or advertising, is one of the top choices for students nowadays, and most colleges in this domain find themselves overwhelmed by applicants. Tereza Tranaka, managing partner at Oxygen Public Relations, has often been involved in mentorship efforts for such students. She has an educational background in the US, where she got her bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Communications from the University of Maryland, and also holds an MBA. She chose to start her own business, after having gained experience both in the US and Romania on the client and agency side, mostly due to her drive to obtain independence “from parents, from corporations, from dysfunctional systems, from rigid environments, from men.”

Unlike her predecessors, Tranaka believes that gender is not an issue in Romania: “I haven’t encountered special challenges due to my gender. In fact, I feel quite fortunate to be a woman here. We are quite an open culture and I feel that opportunities for women and men are fairly equal, even when climbing up the hierarchical ladder.”

Breaking the mould

Most of the professions touched on so far are female dominated. Women have however proven to be successful in IT, the car business, shipping services and tax advisory.

Local e-business solutions software company Siveco’s president and general manager Irina Socol founded the firm in 1992, along with her husband, as proof of the fact that men and women can work together for good results. She has a technical background on the local market, having graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest in 1981, the Faculty of Automatics Computer Science, and also worked as senior engineer, project manager and then software expert for the Research Institute for Automation, Research Institute for Information Technology and National Commission for Information Technology. Contrary to expectations, gender discrimination has not hampered her. “Our industry is an innovative one, including in terms of gender approach. Major global IT corporations have female managers. On our board, four of the seven members are women.”

Moreover, Socol adds, “The woman-man differentiation in business is a cliché. The business world is for courageous people, with vision, determination and strong will. Men or women, they know how to collect and use essential information in order to commit to crucial decisions. They are the models for their teams through the power of example and collective performances.”

When Socol has needed to travel the world for professional purposes, she encountered no discrimination, she adds. “I have never felt that I am treated differently from a businessman. Especially at the EU level, there is an increased interest in supporting women entrepreneurs. The spirit in which we are seen from there (the EU) is based on trust, encouragement and promotion.”

Iuliana Zurba, IT manager at Tibbett Logistics Romania, feels that the discrimination she has experienced has been positive. “When things are not going as they should (an application is very slow, a server is not responding in the expected amount of time), I feel my colleagues are a little bit more understanding than if I had been a male IT manager.”

Tax advisory is also a domain where women managers have made their mark. Mihaela Mitroi, partner at PwC Romania, corporate tax, and coordinator of the tax and legal services retail and consumer group for the whole EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa), as well as a member of a number of professional associations, is one such example. The biggest challenge for women, Mitroi argues, is not reaching management positions, but “the leap between middle management, where women are present in large numbers, to the top tier, where men are generally prevalent.”

Mitroi is another strong believer that “compared to other countries, Romania tends to be more open to the idea of women in leading positions. This is largely due to our communist legacy, when ideological imperatives led both to higher employment ratios for women, as well as to their access to decision-making positions.” This was one of the rare positives aspects of communism. “Today’s society offers women the chance to successfully have a career, raise a family and lead a balanced life at the same time. I am talking not just about tools and institutions such as nurseries, kindergartens, schools, babysitters and private tutors, but also about the sharing of tasks between men and women in modern families. Men have started to get involved more and more in day to day family activities.”

Iulia Nartea, country manager at UPS Romania, the local branch of the international express carrier and package delivery company, started working in the transportation industry in 1992 as an economist in the special transport department at Romtrans, the former authorized service contractor for UPS in Romania, she says. Nartea argues that “All women have come up against some kind of preconception or prejudice at some point in their lives.” She adds that she has avoided this in her current position, since her superiors were also women.

Alice Botnarenco is a female entrepreneur, active in the car business. An economist by profession, she started the firm Rent a Car Kapitolium in 2005, having began her career abroad at 18, as an investment broker. Her biggest challenge so far has not been gender-related, she says, but “maintaining the business and developing it”. She recently started the Women in Business association mentioned earlier to support female initiative on the local market, but claims never to have been treated differently from men.

Women role models are omnipresent in Romania and in spite of some lingering forms of prejudice, professional success is no longer impossible. Common features like ambition, valuing education and a desire to create a balance between family and career seem to connect all these women. And there are many more success stories out there.

corina.dumitrescu@business-review.ro

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