Are Women Underrepresentated In Leadership Positions In Romania?

One of the sustainable development goals is to ensure equal opportunities for women and men in their careers. Access to any form of education is a reality. Instead, promotion to leadership positions generates more challenges for women as compared to men. Such a situation is determined by the choices made by both managers and candidates at leading positions. Underrepresentation of women in leadership is mainly explained by gender stereotypes, different career socialization, and sex discrimination in the organization. The paper presents the results of a quantitative marketing research amongst students and master students from the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Business Administration, Transilvania University of Brașov. The primarily aim of the presented research was to analyse Romanian women’s underrepresentation in leadership positions. The results reveal that women, to a greater extent than men, believe that leadership positions must be occupied by men candidates. It is also women who prefer to develop work relationships with men, as considered to be more balanced. On the other hand, male respondents declare a different point of view, highlighting that competence and abilities for a new leading position is all that matters when chosing the right candidates and the winners for leading positions in an organization.