New Books in History Alexandra Ghiț, "Welfare Work Without Welfare: Women and Austerity in Interwar Bucharest" (De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2025)
Dec 18, 2025
Alexandra Ghiț, a historian focusing on women's labor history in Central and Eastern Europe, dives into her research on interwar Bucharest. She reveals how women became essential social workers during economic hardships, juggling paid and unpaid labor. The discussion highlights the role of women in shaping municipal welfare policies, the impact of transnational influences on social work, and the precarious nature of domestic labor. Ghiț also explores the intersection of ethnicity, respectability, and the dynamics of aid provision, offering a fresh perspective on gender and welfare.
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Gendered Labor Patterns And Pay Gap
- Women worked in distinct sectors: domestic service, home-based piecework, and growing industrial employment, often mixing paid and unpaid care labor.
- Even when employed in factories, women's wages were roughly half men's and their jobs were shaped by childcare and pregnancy constraints.
Laws Without Strong Enforcement
- Legal protections existed for some women workers but enforcement was weak and exceptions common, especially for servants outside standard labor contracts.
- Equal pay remained a demand but became law only in 1948, showing long-term limits of interwar labor reform.
Elite Philanthropy With Conditional Help
- Alexandrina Cantacuzino combined philanthropy, religiosity, and international networks to modernize social assistance while preserving elite control.
- She favored deservingness and moral reform over broad emancipatory agendas for lower-class women.