The diminution of the family's significance in rearing children has, however, fundamentally affected the role of the family in the second half of the twentieth century. As a result of the growing number of working women the roles of the husband and wife are no longer as clearly differentiated. Almost two-thirds of women aged over fifteen in 1966 were employed. Approximately three-fourths of these were married women who had assumed some of the husband's role of provider for the family. At the same time they had relinquished some of their former functions in the household and with respect to children, some of which have been taken over by husbands or by outside institutions.
Social Stratification
Patterns of social stratification have undergone a complete change since World War II. First, land reform immediately after the war eliminated the agricultural aristocracy and increased the number of small peasants who owned their own land. Then nationalization of industry and commerce in the late 1940s eliminated the urban propertied class. Finally, collectivization of agriculture eliminated most of the newly enlarged small peasant class. By the early 1950s the old system had been destroyed, and a new one was in the process of formation.
The period of so-called socialist reconstruction of the 1950s resulted in a general leveling of social strata through the demotion of formerly privileged groups and the promotion of formerly underprivileged groups. Persons of peasant or worker origin received preferential treatment in the allocation of housing and other necessities of life that were in short supply, in the appointment to jobs, and in access to higher education. At the same time persons of middle or upper class background were deprived of their housing, removed from key jobs, and denied educational opportunities for their children through a discriminatory quota system at secondary and higher schools. A policy of equalizing incomes made little distinction between differing levels of education or skill, thus eliminating material rewards as a basis for social stratification. At the same time, however, a small group of party stalwarts, most of them of lower or middle class background, rose rapidly into the top positions of administrative and political power and became the new ruling elite.
As viewed by its own ideologists and sociologists, Romania in 1971 was in the socialist stage of development heading toward a classless communist society. This meant that there were distinctions in income, standard of living, and prestige among different groups in the society; the distinctions, however, were based on occupation rather than ownership of property. Members of all groups were employees; the only employer was society as a whole through its organ, the state. The main basis for the distinction of classes was the difference between manual labor and intellectual work. This difference was gradually being eliminated through the continuous upgrading of the prestige of manual labor.
Most Romanian writing on social strata or differentiation based on occupation separates society into three classes: workers, intelligentsia, and peasants. By most definitions, workers are all those engaged in productive occupations, including both the unskilled laborer and the highly skilled technician. Intelligentsia are all those engaged in nonproductive occupations, such as office work or service jobs, including both the unqualified clerk and the enterprise manager or university professor. Sometimes, however, the intelligentsia is defined as all those with a secondary or higher education without regard to their occupations. Members of agricultural cooperatives are classified as peasants, whereas employees of state farms are considered workers. The small number of peasants still working private agricultural holdings are considered to be a disappearing remnant of the past and, therefore, are not included in any segment of the socialist society.
In 1969 workers were reported as constituting 40 percent of the population; intelligentsia, 12.3 percent; and peasants, 47.7 percent. Comparable statistics for 1960 divided the population into 28.6 percent worker, 9.5 percent intellectual, and 61.9 percent peasant. Thus, the peasant class was growing smaller while the worker and intellectual classes were expanding. A continuation of this trend was forecast for the 1970s.
Cutting across this division was one based on skill and education. Thus the unskilled worker, the unskilled peasant, and the unqualified clerk were all members of the same stratum but of different classes. It was not clear whether or not a division into strata would continue after class distinctions were eliminated.
This view of the social structure seems to be more a statement of ideology than an analysis of the actual structure. On the basis of material rewards, social prestige, and political power, the highest stratum is the ruling communist elite, followed in turn by the intelligentsia—professional, managerial, and administrative personnel with a higher education—skilled manual workers, lower level white-collar personnel, and unskilled workers and peasants.
The ruling elite is composed of the top communist leadership in the party, government, mass organizations, and various branches of the economy. The main criterion for membership in that elite is power derived from approved ideological orientation and political activism. Most members of the ruling elite in 1971 were of lower class background and were veterans of the communist movement in the interwar period. The life-style and privileges enjoyed by the ruling elite do not differ much from those of the intelligentsia, the next level in the social scale, but the elite holds a monopoly of power.