ABSTRACT
Gender equality was a key component of the Romanian government's economic plans during the communist regime: female activity and employment were very high, and evidence suggests that the gender pay gap was minimal in the more segmented occupations, while large overall. Romania has undergone a very slow process of economic transition since the fall of the regime, also because of the legacy from the centrally planned economic system. Communist Romania also ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1982. Various policy initiatives supported this objective, including a national campaign to eliminate female illiteracy and increase educational attainment and the numbers of girls continuing into university education, as well as the much more directly stated aim of increasing female employment. However, it is controversial whether this represented a genuine gender equality objective, considering that centrally planned Romania clearly lacked aspects of freedom that are intrinsic to genuine equality.
