Women’s Role And Status in The Modern Society: A Case Study of The Roma Women
This article is based on an “FRA Director’s speech by ‘Michael O’Flaherty’ to a high-level Romanian Presidency conference on the role and status of Roma women in modern society: Between empowerment, leadership, and gender discrimination, given on 29 May 2019 in Bucharest.”
In 2018, the EU Fundamental Rights Agency presented significant survey data within the findings of the EU Minority and Discrimination Survey– short EU-MIDIS II-. An approximate of 10-12 million Roma live in Europe and are victims of the most extreme manifestations of bigotry and prejudice we are seeing today on our continent.
—> The key challenges they are facing are:
- Poverty: According to him, the vast majority of Roma have wages below the national poverty line. Thus resulting in about half of Roma children living in areas suffering from malnutrition or hunger.
- Housing: He indicates that more than half of Roma tend to live in segregated and isolated areas. They stay in residences with accommodation falling well behind the minimum and basic requirements and standards of housings.
- Employment: Just about one-third of the Roma women are in paying jobs, which is mostly precarious and informal. Whilst the majority of young Roma between the ages of 18-24 are neither working nor trained. This actually poses a concern for their future and can cause them to reduce their life chances of being employed.
- Anti-Gypsyism: He claims that hate-motivated violence and abuse are now growing problems everywhere. Four percent of Roma in their studies suffered physical abuse driven by anti-Gypsyism. And only one in three of them reported this to any organization, including the police.
As regards the particular experiences of Roma women as opposed to Roma men, findings were published earlier this year by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights. There are two major issues that mostly stand out: employment and early marriage.
—> To handle this problem and turn to the appropriate intervention, here are three areas that require attention:
- First, a need to get even better at understanding Roma women and working with them. At the Fundamental Rights Agency, a Local Engagement for Roma Inclusion project was launched to create a forum for discussion to listen to Roma voices at national and local levels. This initiative allowed citizens the opportunity to recognize one priority problem – and received a small grant to incorporate it into action.
- This showed how encouraging local projects where Roma women decide when and how to do it. Improved self-confidence among these young people served as an opportunity for them to be heard and establish networks.
- Second, they require a better quality of education for all Roma girls by:
- Fighting education segregation in schools. Roma children are treated differently from non-Roma children already in primary school.
- Ensuring that Roma girls have access to education, in view of de-facto segregated life.
- Prioritizing other girls-focused initiatives. Such as scholarships or the use of the European Social Fund and Youth Guarantee schemes to ensure young Roma women enter and remain in education.
- Third, offer practical resources to Roma women to access the labor market. Battling poverty and ensuring affordable housing can help Roma women, in particular, unleash their ability to pursue high-quality employment and have real opportunities to make realistic choices. The best way to tackle early marriage is also to provide women with a genuine choice to get an education and a job.
