Since you clicked on the article, I assume that you have also seen vintage movies and series or read books from the same register: Jane Eyre, Pride and prejudice, may be The bundle of vanities? Whatever they are, one thing is certain: vintage productions have a special air, something that catches you in its nets and makes you transpose to another point in time.

Sorry to break the fantasy, but crinolines, balls and the courtesies of the moment would also come with the frustrations of the modern woman. Every now and then I randomly think of the opening scene from Gone with the Wind, the scene where Scarlett O'Hara struggles to get into the dress, and Mammy tells her, more or less, that she'll be unmarried if she eats in public. It's just a trivial example, because the problems of women in recent history go much further than that.

Education was not always an option

These days, fortunately, we see more and more news from the registry "The first team of women to win the Nobel Prize in Science", "The woman who coordinated the settlement of Mars", but things weren't always like that. On the contrary, until 150 years ago we could not even dream of an academic career. In Romania, the right to education was granted to all Romanians only in the second half of the 19th century, and I am strictly referring to the legal side of the issue. Theoretically, this included women, assuming that social norms also allowed a woman to follow a path other than the traditional one. As we all surely know, there is quite a big difference between "being allowed" and "being able", as evidenced by the fact that the first woman enrolled at a university in Romania waited until 1883, according to research Waste of talents: turning private struggles into a public issue. Women and Science in the Enwise countries, led by the European Commission in 2004.

Things looked similar in the rest of Europe: the first women matriculated to a British university, The Edinburgh Seven, chose medicine in 1869, but none of them completed their studies. In Germany, women only got the right to take university courses in 1891, but it was up to the professor to accept them or not. For us, with today's social consciousness, it sounds impossible that a (now) fundamental right should be determined only by the goodwill of the teacher, doesn't it?

Even having a political opinion was not exactly simple

Well, the fact that women didn't always have the right to vote is nothing new. The Nordic countries were the first of the Europe that also allows women to vote, but that only in Finland in 1906; followed by Norway (1913), Denmark, Iceland (1915), then a large part of Europe in 1918. "A large part" did not yet include us: Romanian women were able to express their political opinion decisively many years later, in 1929 , and only in local elections. It took almost ten more years before women were able to vote in all elections in Romania. If we put things into perspective, it is, again, inconceivable; how could half the population not be able to decide on the political future of a country?

When it comes to political representation, even these days there is room for better, although women are allowed to choose and be elected. Without making a political comment out of an article about gender inequality over the years, let's look at some data.

Great Britain has had Margaret Thatcher as prime minister since 1979, while Romania took this step only in 2018, with Viorica Dăncilă. Anca Dragu Paliu, the first woman to lead the Senate, is also a first for Romania.

As for the female parliamentarians, the news was already talking about her since 2016 "The new Parliament, also with few women", to be exact almost 20% of the total elected. The situation did not improve in 2020, when the percentage fell to 17%, so the trend is rather worrying.

Things are different in the European Parliament, where women represent 40% of the EU legislature, according Deutsche Welle. Also, since 2019, the European Commission has been headed by a woman for the first time, the politician of German origin Ursula von der Leyen.

What to do?

If we're still talking about numbers, it's important to ask ourselves some questions. Why are there so few women in top politics? Are few elected or are few candidates? If so, then what is the systemic problem behind it, are they discouraged from pursuing a career in politics, are they hindered or is it just that interest is lower than among men?

We can ask similar questions in any field where gender representation is disproportionate. Why are there fewer female heads of department in the hospital, is it something to do with the fear that it interferes with family life? What problems get in the way of a teenage girl's path to a STEM field? I discussed this a bit in another article, The woman's place is in STEM, together with several young women from computer science, architecture and engineering.

I do not claim to have the answers to these questions, but rather emphasize how important it is to pay attention and discuss such topics - only then can we achieve real representation in all structures of society.