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The business environment in Romania is still dominated by men and there is inequality in entrepreneurship based on gender, although a significant progress could be seen in recent years, with women being increasingly present either as entrepreneurs or in management functions, show the conclusions of an analysis to which the founders of some companies in IT, HR, interior design and marketing responded.
"Currently, I believe that business has a male gender, especially considering the fact that there are fewer women in Romania, but also in the world, in leadership positions in organizations. That is why the male leadership style is felt much more. There is still an inequality in entrepreneurship based on gender, but which is decreasing from year to year," says Catalina Trupsor, founder and CEO of Color Smart Distribution.
The entrepreneur, with 17 years of business experience, points out that, although the Romanian business environment is still dominated by men, the influence of female leadership is beginning to be felt in organizational cultures, in the development or innovation of new businesses.
Instead, Roxana Epure, the owner of NextUp Solutions, one of the largest Romanian software solutions companies, emphasizes that business has no gender and that the only way for the Romanian entrepreneur, woman or man, is to professionalize regardless of gender, to base its business on sound principles and to create a culture of performance.
"We see more and more women business owners. They are resilient, organized and lead profitable organizations, in production, technology, services, distribution. They are open to learning, they are competitive, because until recently they needed to prove their abilities, while always being compared to men. I often see hands-on women, who manage to take care of their business and family, to be social as well. It's admirable to see strong women, who constantly choose to do a lot, without complaining, on the contrary, with joy and passion," is the opinion of the entrepreneur with more than 12 years of experience.
In her turn, Gratiela Lupu, co-founder of White Image, the first and largest email marketing company in the country, believes that Romanian business no longer has gender and that women are increasingly present in entrepreneurship. "Women in business represent a force in the country's economy and more and more occupy top positions or develop their own businesses. In the past 10-20 years, the Romanian business environment has evolved significantly for the better, with many important changes and, thus, more and more women in Romania have chosen to start their own businesses immediately after finishing their studies due to the funds allocated for start-ups and in general the access to financing," argues Gratiela Lupu.
At the same time, Elena Georgescu, the founder of True People, a company specialized in headhunting through technology, emphasizes that business still has gender, but there is progress in reducing the differences between women and men in entrepreneurship. "Both in education and in business, the prejudices regarding the 'feminine' and 'masculine' fields are maintained, even if there are also exceptions and large companies allocate a number of places for female presence, including at the board of directors level," stated the entrepreneur.
Regarding the innate abilities for business, female entrepreneurs point out that there are differences according to gender. Thus, if in their opinion men are more pragmatic, task-oriented and rational, women have empathy, intuition and creativity as their main assets, which help them in business management.
At the same time, regarding the mutual support between women in business, the entrepreneurs say that there are solid communities dedicated to female entrepreneurship, which contribute to the development of companies and the business environment.
According to them, in recent years more and more communities dedicated to women entrepreneurs have been formed, which offer mentoring programmes and organize periodic meetings where women from various fields come together to get to know each other, organize various joint networking activities, and understand the challenges and find solutions together. AGERPRES
