Forța economică a femeilor

«Daca cineva crede ca o femeie nu poate sa fie un antreprenor de mare succes, un director de multinationala, cred ca se insala si cred ca nu realizeaza adevaratul potential al femeilor antreprenor, care isi aduc o contributie importanta la dezvoltarea economica si, implicit, a Romaniei. Incepem sa vorbim de ceva vreme la Guvern de o strategie economica. Ne propunem o viziune economica despre incotro trebuie sa mearga Romania si aceasta viziune are ca punct central productia romaneasca, o productie oriunde si o productie cu femei antreprenor, cu femei manager», a spus vicepremierul Borc, prezent la eveniment.

Cartea este, practic, continuarea asteptata a volumului aparut in urma cu cinci ani, Forta politica a femeilor si urmeaza o structura similara, in sensul ca pune fata in fata aspectele institutionale si statistice ale tematicii abordate cu cele practice, fiind structurata in trei parti. (…) Partea a treia a volumului abunda in aspecte practice, astfel incit unele dintre povestiri se pot constitui in adevarate „studii de caz”, numai potrivite pentru studentii de afaceri, presarate cu aspecte ale planurilor de afaceri, efectele participarii la tirguri si expozitii internationale asupra cresterii firmei, identificarea surselor de finantare, modalitati de patrundere pe pietele externe, impactul crizei economice. Astfel, cartea vizeaza mai multe grupuri-tinta: pasionati de istoria si de studiul businessului, economisti, decidenti de politici publice, antreprenori – atit barbati, cit si femei – aflati la inceputul carierei lor in acest domeniu. Fiecare poveste este spusa cu pasiune si pastreaza ceva din duiosia cu care orice femeie vorbeste despre proprii copiii – iar combinatia dintre cele doua te face sa iti doresti sa ajungi sa si cunosti femeile care isi impartasesc istoria lor ca antreprenoare – in fond, istoria vietii lor.

In Cluj se traieste mult mai bine decit in majoritatea tarii, iar acest lucru se datoreaza in mare parte efortului depus de femei, a declarat miercuri, la Cluj-Napoca, deputatul Andreea Paul, cu prilejul lansarii cartii Forta economica a femeilor. Potrivit prim-vicepresedintelui PNL, Clujul ocupa locul 3 in tara din perspectiva locurilor de munca create de femeile antreprenoare, cu peste 13.000 de antreprenoare care genereaza peste 33.000 locuri de munca. Cifra de afaceri alcatuita este de asemenea una impresionanta, circa 5,2 miliarde de lei anual, adica mult peste 1 miliard de euro. La acestea se adauga peste 7000 de clujence care au ales sa lucreze pe cont propriu.

This year, the well-known publisher house Polirom, from Iasi, has brought to the public a remarkable work, coordinated by Mrs. Andreea Paul. The title itself, The economic strength of women can be regarded as intriguing and suggests a subject which has been only occasionally addressed – that of Romanian feminism within the economic environment. This volume is a follow up of another project, initiated by Andreea Paul 5 years ago, regarding The political strength of women. This became a real success and was able to gather quite a few important names from different political parties under a common voice, proving thus there is a solidarity of women in politics regardless party politics and ideology. The new volume, The economic strength of women, has benefited from 57 major contributions and is organized into three major parts, preceded by an introduction and followed by conclusions. The author starts by presenting the kind of subjects and questions the volume is covering and addressing, such as how much women and men work, where they work and how much they are paid, how the economists define gender inequality and what its impact on the whole society is. The book also looks at entrepreneurship and its motivations, who the successful women are and how they succeed in a fierce business competition, and why there are more and more public initiatives that support women entrepreneurship. On this background, the author reminds us about the initiative of the former European Commissioner on Justice, Viviane Reding, regarding a 40% gender quota on company boards.

The Economic Force of Women, edited by Andreea Paul, is not only a necessary book for the Romanian publishing field, it is also a well-written and easy to read one, being extremely interesting and inciting. A summary in English as well as the contents presented in English would have given the book more international visibility and possibly trigger an incentive to have it translated and, thus, accessible to a much larger audience that it has today. The conclusions offered by the editor herself are very revealing and some worth mentioning here. Using a corpus linguistic approach to her text, Andreea Paul is able to conclude that the main drivers for women entrepreneurs in Romania are work, success and dreams (words appearing in more than 100 contexts) while change, team work, planning, achievement, power, family, children and personal development are the background for their activities (words appearing more than 50 times). Leadership and innovation appear, somehow surprisingly, less than 10 times. This is relevant for the type of values women entrepreneurship have in Romania and their need for responsible leaders and decision-makers to support Romanian capital and drive the country forward.