Prezentare

EDITORS’ FOREWORD It is a well-known fact that women are unfairly (and sometimes severely) disadvantaged in some key areas of social, political, cultural or economic life. These disadvantages are not only unjust, but sometimes also imply important economic costs for the society (i.e., the waste of talents remained untapped due to the disadvantages suffered by women). Therefore, designing and implementing successful strategies for the advancement of women in these areas is one of the most important and pressing target in contemporary world. It is no surprise that promoting equal opportunities for women is declared as an issue of utmost importance by most political platforms in the Western world and it is assumed as a key instrument in achieving the goal of a sustainable development. In this context, between the 10th and the 13th of September 2015, the Romanian Academy – Iași Branch and the “Gheorghe Zane” Institute for Economic and Social Research organized the International Conference “Social and Academic Policies for Women”. The conference, which took place in Iași, Romania, was organized within “PECAFROM – Promoting Equal Opportunities in University and Academic Career for Women in Romania” SOP HRD/144/6.3/S/127928 Project, co-financed from European Social Fund through the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013 and was intended and designed as an opportunity for dialog and debate for the project beneficiaries and researchers and other scholars concerned with the issues raised by the ideal of promoting equal opportunities for women. In order to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of these issues, the conference was open to both theoretical and applied approaches from all disciplines with contributions in analyzing and investigating the problematics raised by the ideal of promoting equal opportunities for women, from philosophy to economics, and from social to political theory. By facilitating their access to academic debates raised by the ideal of promoting equal opportunities for women, the conference constituted an important tool for realizing the main objective of PECAFROM project: that of supporting 550 women with higher education from Romania in increasing their employment opportunities and initiating and developing an academic career. This objective was realized in the project also through three other main types of support: guidance in accessing and processing the information concerning the academic labor market; financial support and entrepreneurial assistance for starting a business; and, last but not least, support in accessing training programmes for career development. The conference had four main sections: 1. Philosophical Foundations of Gender Policies; 2. Social & Economic Analyses of Gender Policies; 3. Gender in Rural space; and 4. Gender Ethics and Equity. Among the topics debated in these sections were: gender equity, discrimination and bias against women, gender stereotypes, work-life balance, equal economic independence, gender pay gap, gender and the labor market, gender balance in decision-making positions, women’s empowerment, or violence against women. As the title of the conference suggests, also a favorite topic was equality of opportunity for women in academia. Is academia a place of equal opportunities for women and men? Why are women so severely under-represented in some academic disciplines like STEM fields or philosophy? Are women negatively discriminated in these fields? Do we need more women in the fields in which they are most under-represented? Which policies are best in promoting equal opportunities for women and men in academia? Is affirmative action for women a justified tool for promoting equal opportunities for developing an academic career? This volume is a collection of papers presented in the conference and includes articles dealing with the above mentioned and other related topics, such as gender (in)equality in rural space, toponymy, online environment, academia, literary canon, education, occupations and social roles, military culture, practices of advertising etc. The volume is the second part of a book financed by European Social Fund through the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013 (the first part gathering some of the other main findings and conclusions of the research developed in the PECAFROM Project). We hope that the book will be found useful (and inspiring) by all those interested in women’s situation in contemporary social, political, cultural, academic, or economic life and also in promoting equal opportunities for women in all these areas.