Carmen Gheorghe

prevents Roma women from all ending up as housewives

Carmen Gheorghe was born as part of the Roma minority in Romania. When she was growing up, Roma women were confined to being housewives and mothers. Her schoolteachers had no academic expectations for their Romani students, so she was sent to tailoring school. Inspired by the fact that the strongest people in her family were women, Gheorghe decided to fight the expectations of her community. Working in tailors’ shops, she took evening classes to complete high school and then went on to university. She studied subjects like gender and Roma history and earned a PhD in political science.

Carmen Gheorghe started working, and had the opportunity to go to the United States. But she came back to her village Mizil, where she founded the grassroots organisation E-Romnja, the first Romani feminist organisation in Romania. She broke away from the patronising, male-dominated, top-down approach of most organisations that try to help minorities. Gheorghe empowers Roma women to make the change themselves regarding issues like gender and sexual identity, women’s rights (abortion, equality), housing, and local infrastructure. She hopes that contemporary Roma women she teaches about their rights and possibilities will inspire future generations as well.

The status quo at Carmen Gheorghe’s time:

More than 80 years after the Holocaust and 160 years after the abolition of slavery in Romania, Roma women are still the target of numerous forms of discrimination: from the traditional role in family and community to the frequent racist and sexist attacks on their sexuality and rights. Roma women are systematically restricted from access to work, healthcare, political and public representation.

THE PRESENT