How come Romanian women have (almost) equal pay ?

Given the period of the year we’re in, I thought I would write something about women and their rights (to equal pay). (Promise, I will come back to my list after that!)
March is really “Women's month” in Romania. On March 1st, they are given "martisoare" (symbols of renewal, spring and caring), and on March 8th its' Mother's Day, celebrating all the mothers around the country (remember all those school pictures with standardized love poems underneath?).

Well, when I arrived in France I realized that March 8th is actually Women's day, and even the International women rights' day. (Communists have transformed Women in Mothers..)

And surprisingly enough, this was quite a shock. I mean, in those early years, I hadn't realized that I didn't have all the rights, or I should say, the same rights as those around me. Because the discriminating line was between rich and poor, it didn't really matter if you were a girl or a boy to me.

However, I was only a little girl in the communist era, so I wasn’t even aware of the compulsory gynecological controls, illegal abortions and women dying during or after illegally aborting - a reality that inspired Margaret Atwood’ "The Handmaid'sTale". I only saw – and my girlfriends saw the same - that women were everywhere in society: in the factories, in the research or engineering fields, teachers, doctors etc. Even Ceausescu' wife got a (fake) PhD in chemistry, being in her own distorted way an example of a woman of power.

While France for me was the land of respected rules, no corruption, a land where people would pay their taxes thinking of other people' well-being, and where women and men would have equal opportunities and rewards.

Well, reality is a bit more complex than that.

At the end of the day, it seems actually that the communist years have had - retrospectively - a positive impact on women' pay today.

With one of the lowest salary gap between women and men, Romania is an example in terms of women' rights to equal pay (the numbers below are from 2015; since then, the numbers changed a little, 
https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/7aiirw/eu_gender_pay_gap_how_much_less_do_women_earn/, to be compared with the Statista numbers from 2013 https://www.statista.com/chart/4159/the-eus-gender-pay-gap-visualised/
Romania even affords having competent and incompetent women in public seats

France doesn't want incompetent women, but still pays its competent women 15% less than their male colleagues, competent or not. (We’re not yet at that moment in time when, according to Françoise Giroud’ catchy phrase from 35 years ago, “an incompetent woman would be named in an important position”.)

Just venting a bit of my anger :)

And you, do you encounter the same issues in your country (home country or country of residence) ? If yes, how do you handle it ?

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