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This paper explores the gendered assessment of political leadership in Romania. Using recent survey data obtained from a nationally representative sample, we found that men and women are unevenly impacted by various individual, household, and socio-cultural variables that have an unequal influence on their support for the cultural belief that men make better political leaders than women do. Our findings suggest that women's stereotypical view of male leadership is eroded mostly by education, the presence of older children in the household, and upholding a feminist agenda. For men, only the category of those with tertiary education has a lower likelihood to believe in this stereotype, compared with the reference category of men with secondary education or below. In addition, men are less inclined to support this cultural belief when they choose reading as first leisure preference as compared to men privileging other leisure activities, while for women this relationship has not been identified. A higher income of respondents as compared to their spouses'/partners' income reinforces the cultural stereotype of men as natural political leaders among male respondents, while for women a positive association is found in relationship with their partners undertaking masculine activities such as fixing things around the house. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several scholars have emphasised the impact of gender on the notion, uses, and practices of heritage. Critical research dealing with gender, sexuality, and heritage is, however, rare. This article examines the research on gender and heritage across social sciences and humanities and shows how it is also gendered. Our meta-synthesis of articles selected from the Web of Science (WOS) combines a quantitative analysis of bibliometric information and coded contents of 427 relevant articles with a close reading of a sub-sample of 13 articles that explicitly deconstruct the binary gender system and its heteronormativity by focusing on LGBTQI minorities. Our results indicate that the articles on gender and heritage are predominantly written by one woman author, and related to this, mainly focus on cis women or femininity, which partly perpetuates a bias that gender is a 'women's issue'. Moreover, the analysed scholarship is Western dominated and Eurocentric. Although the articles in our sub-sample critically explore narratives, events, and sites dealing with LGBTQI minorities and their participation in heritage by queering it, the studies lack a critical approach to the notion of heritage and the use of power in heritagization processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romania is a major source country of labor migration to other EU countries, being commonly perceived as a source country for sex workers operating in more prosperous economies. However, very little is known about population attitudes in relation to prostitution in Romania. Based on nationally representative data from the Romanian Gender Barometer (2018) survey, we analyzed data on 860 individuals to examine the predictors of policy preferences for legalizing prostitution. We considered individual-level socio-demographics and household-level indicators such as the presence of children and migrants, as well as socio-cultural beliefs and behaviors related to social liberalism and religiosity. The findings suggest that male gender and higher education are strong predictors of preferences for the legalization of prostitution. However, living in a household with migrants and attending church regularly were negatively associated with the legalizing policy option. Moreover, social liberalism-expressed as both favorable attitudes toward the introduction of sex education in school curriculum, and as a rejection of traditional gender roles-increased the odds of supporting the legalization of prostitution. The interaction between presence of children under 18 in the household and respondents' occupational status also revealed a significant effect. Such findings are relevant in order to correctly develop and orient prostitution policy in a way that works for citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global sex industry has undergone a tremendous transformation, and many different forms of commercial sex have emerged with the growth of digital media. The advent of 'platform work' in diverse fields, including sex work, has affected digital workers' experiences dramatically. Combining insights from literature on labour platforms' proliferation with online sex work that entails new forms of exploitation, this paper introduces the concept of flexi(nse)curity to describe the tension between work arrangements and insecurity narrated by Romanian women working as webcam models. In doing so, the article places webcammers' narratives in the structural and cultural context dominated by neoliberal post-socialist reforms and strong religious interference in both State affairs and people's private lives. Alongside the relevance of country scale, in which cultural and structural features shape the size and challenges of adult webcamming, our article examines how place-bound insecurity is narrated in online discussions as a multi-faceted and multi-layered experience co-produced through the intersection of online platforms and material spaces where webcammers perform (i.e., models' home bedrooms and webcam studios). Challenging the popular view of webcamming as autonomous and flexible work, this paper reveals sex workers' vulnerabilities by applying a feminist geographical lens to webcammers' narratives from an online discussion forum. The findings suggest that there are diverse flexi(nse)curity patterns that are contingent on the intricacies of platform capitalism and emerging work arrangements in online sex work marked by an upsurge in webcam studios in which webcam models occupy a vulnerable position in asymmetric staff power relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the drivers of migrants' internal relocation upon return from abroad. Acknowledging that return cannot be disconnected from prior international migration, as suggested by the new theoretical developments in stepwise migration (King & Skeldon, 2010), we provide quantitative and qualitative evidence to substantiate these patterns of stepwise migration among Romanian returnees. Building on the distinction between U‐turn and J‐turn, namely, return to the same place versus relocation to a different place within the origin country, our findings suggest that alongside the structural context and life course careers, individual sociodemographics and aspects of migration experience abroad play a significant role in explaining the choice of a J‐turn. Women, for instance, are more likely to relocate upon return than their male counterparts, whereas older returnees have lower odds of a J‐turn trajectory compared with younger migrants. Similarly, an increased length of stay abroad and repeated migrations are positively associated with a J‐turn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book review aims to highlight the signifi cance of retreiving the long ignored contributions of Sofi a Nădejde to the progress of understanding gender inequalities that are deeply rooted in our culture. Through the careful work of reshaping the original texts published between 1881-1885 in Contemporanul. Revistă Ştiinţifi că şi Literară, Maria Cernat and Adina Mocanu bring new insights into the genesis and the evolution of local feminist thought by critically situating it within the global feminist movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the gendered aspects of changes affecting the life course of Romanians post-socialism, and the meanings men and women—with ages spanning across various age cohorts—employ to make sense of their experiences. Based on qualitative data collected during research on precarious prosperity among Romanian households conducted in 2013, the findings show that major shifts occurred in the timing of life events. Romanians’ life courses and their work trajectories have been unevenly affected depending on their intersectional belonging to gender, area of residence and life stage at the moment of the political transition. The analysis of work trajectories unravels increasing gender differentiation among younger cohorts and reinforcement of the gendered life paths taken. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper addresses the tensions arising from the intersection of norms and practices of support in situations in which intergenerational support is the main household strategy for coping with precariousness in Romania. This paper describes competing meanings of solidarity and reveals gendered experiences of ambiguity with respect to the sustainability of help exchanges within the context of economic vulnerability. Romania displays high public acceptance of intergenerational support, while the country’s deficient social welfare system prompts families to intensify their help exchanges. Findings based on in-depth interviews suggest that private arrangements are compounded by unbalanced help exchanges among generations. With the state and the community support directed towards lower social strata, these arrangements give rise to many tensions. Parents become excessively burdened by the constant obligation to help their adult children, while the children’s dependence upon their parents limits the opportunities to reciprocate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The burden of cancer is increasingly affecting patients in all European countries. The paper draws a landscape of the Romanian non-profit sector involved in tackling cancer. A descriptive analysis was done on two databases (the national registries of associations and foundations in Romania), for delineating the extent and the type of the NGOs' involvement in the cancer fight. Results show a cancer civil society still in its infancy stage, displaying an imbalanced situation in terms of goals' orientation and territorial distribution. Financially helping patients is a prevailing orientation, whilst there is not enough focus on prevention, education, rehabilitation and palliation. The paper raises concern for policy-makers to include NGOs as partners in national-cancer control programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the strategies to improve the quality of life of households in precarious prosperity in urban contexts of Romania and Switzerland - two countries who are characterised by strong structural and political differences and dissimilar living conditions. The paper advances qualitative research on the topic, which is still scarce. Quality of life is approached according to the definition of Zapf and the empirical analysis is based on the concept of social bonds of Paugam. The authors undertook a longitudinal analysis on several interview waves in order to shed light on the role of the welfare state, the labour market, the family and the community for the households' quality of life. The Swiss households perceive a greater scope of agency than the Romanian households, which depend mainly on the labour market and their family. Strategies of adaptation come to the fore in both countries, when an active modification of the living conditions is not perceived as possible. This new element goes beyond the Paugam's concept of social bonds and allows for understanding where new social policy is needed: in the adapted cases, the welfare state and communities could actually play an active role to improve the households' quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at both poverty and a specific layer of population in Romania we call precarious prosperity with the goal of understanding the household-level factors that contribute to the likelihood of being in this respective category. Drawing upon the emerging literature on precarious prosperity, this approach is an attempt to look beyond measures of poverty that are limited from appropriately capturing the relevant economic circumstances of disadvantaged households. Based on the latest wave of available EU-SILC data, multinomial logistic regression shows that similar household-level factors like housing type, unemployment, household production and household type have an impact on the likelihood of being in poverty or precarious prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior studies on Roma migration put much emphasis on either structural factors or networks that become key elements for explaining the growing migration flows of a population lacking economic resources and characterized by poor education. Although very relevant for explaining the perpetuation of migration, these studies posit the limit of downplaying migrants' agency and the role of identity markers mediating the influence of structural conditions in both destination and origin countries. Drawing on quantitative data from the Roma Inclusion Barometer (2006) as well as on in-depth interviews with Roma migrants from Eastern Romania, the paper provides a more comprehensive account of contemporary Romanian Roma migration towards Western European countries. The paper challenges the portrayal of the Roma migrant population, as conveyed by many scholars, as a rather passive one and argues that gender, religion and subgroup identities constitute key elements in explaining Roma migrants' agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Quality of Life (1018-0389) / Calitatea Vietii is the property of Romanian Academy Publishing House / Editura Academiei Romane and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Romania, as part of EU, distinguishes itself from the other groups of EU countries in many respects. The paper takes stock of prior findings on health inequalities in Romania and sets out to explore the pattern of inequalities in selfreported health status in Romania in comparison to ten NMS and EU15. Drawing on individual data gathered on national representative samples through European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), a logistic regression was carried out in order to assess the role of individual and contextual factors in shaping the patterns of inequalities in self-reported health in Romania in comparison to two major groups of European countries. Research findings indicate that individual factors like age, gender, education, employment status and income are key to understanding inequalities in self-rated health in Romania and the analysed groups of countries, this proving to a universal pattern. Contextual factors proved to be less important in determining self-rated health in Romania while they may play a more important role in two groups of countries considered here. Inequalities are more pronounced in Romania in what regards sex and education in comparison to the two analysed groups of countries. Evaluation of health services is a crucial factor in Romania and the two groups of countries in self-rated health while the role of environmental factors is not important in Romania and varies in the country between NMS 10 and EU15. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Quality of Life (1018-0389) / Calitatea Vietii is the property of Romanian Academy Publishing House / Editura Academiei Romane and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of this article is to focus the importance of the gender approach in the analysis of contemporaneous migrations for work reason, and this starting from an empirical research on migration of a rural Rumanian population in Rome. Even if housework has made a long course before being recognized as work, we cannot ignore the role played by the migrant women in development and in defining that area of activity, above all in Italy where the demand for domestic help literally bursts out in the last three decades. This specific working reality, above all developing itself as hidden economy, creates the niche for the economic inclusion of migrant Rumanian women. The connection of migrant men and women towards the work carried out by them is a key element of the analysis. The way of thinking of the origin society towards the migration for working reason of men and women also changes thanks to the influence of the migration process itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]