DEMOGRAPHIC DECLINE, DIGITAL ACCELERATION, AND GENDERED EXCLUSION: EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA
DEMOGRAPHIC DECLINE, DIGITAL ACCELERATION, AND GENDERED EXCLUSION: EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA
Ioana-Alexandra MAXIM
1 Faculty of Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Iași, Romania
iamaxim@outlook.com
Abstract: Against the backdrop of demographic ageing and accelerating artificial intelligence (AI), the nature of work is being redefined, yet not all groups benefit equally. The article examines how digital transformation intersects caregiving constraints on women’s labour market participation. This paper proposes a conceptual five-dimensional exclusion mechanism: the digital skills deficit, the remote work desert, the childcare void, the time inequality trap, and the AI acceleration asymmetry. The study analyses Romania’s outlier position using descriptive statistics and literature review. Romania ranks last in the EU on digital skills (28%), AI adoption (5.2%), and childcare coverage (6.5%), with a gender employment gap of 17.4 pp (EU-27: 9.4 pp). The analysis reveals three paradoxes: a relatively high share of women among ICT specialists coexisting with the EU’s lowest level of women’s basic digital skills; generous parental leave associated with measurable depreciation of digital human capital; and a generation of digital natives that remains digitally under-skilled by European standards. Romania faces one of the most severe labour force contractions in the EU and the continued digital exclusion of highly educated women with caregiving responsibilities constitutes not merely a gender equality deficit but a direct threat to economic sustainability.
Keywords: Digital Economy; Gender Gap; Industry 4.0; Remote Work; Digital Skills; Childcare; Romania.
JEL Classification: J16; J21; O33; J13.
