FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG POLITICAL REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ROMANIA 4 WOMEN'S ORGANISATIONS- A CATALYST FOR GENDER EQUALITY? Women's organisations in political parties can be a way to promote gender equality within political parties(Holli 2006, Kantola 2019), although some authors consider these structures redundant, overlapping with internal democratic arrangements of parties, and argue that, to increase the substantive political representation of women, a more nuanced approach to political parties regarding the role of women is needed(Childs& Kittilsson 2016). Although in some national contexts(i.e. Finland) these organisations have had a demonstrated positive impact on the political representation of women, at the discursive level there are a number of controversies and contradictions that undermine the legitimacy of these structures(Kantola 2019). Women's access to leadership structures and positions of power in political parties is a catalyst for gender equality(Cheng& Tavits 2011), although it is not in itself a guarantee of changing male political practices and the organisational culture of political parties. Of the six political parties/organisations in Romania, four have articles on the presence/possibility of creating women's organisations. In the following, we analyse the attributions of these organisations(according to the statutes), the rights granted to them(if any) and then their activities and objectives, starting from their web pages and/or Facebook pages. We aim to see to what extent women's organisations are a factor that favours the descriptive and substantive representation of women. In this regard, we analysed posts on Facebook pages made during the 2019-2020 election campaigns: 27 April- 25 May 2019(European Parliament); 27 August- 26 September 2020(local) and 6 November- 5 December 2020(Parliamentary). Women's organisation- AUR(OF AUR). The AUR statutes provide for the possibility of setting up a women's organisation(art. 27, 1). The President of the Women's Organisation is a member of the National Steering Committee(art. 44) as well as the National Steering Bureau(art. 45). children and for those who care about everything they leave behind, beautiful and good!« From a post from 16 May 2020, we find out that the president of the organisation is Adela-Ioana Târziu Grăjdeanu(wife of Claudiu Târziu, co-president of the party). Between 27 August and 26 September, the AUR Women's Organisation had a total of 33 posts, of which 16 were about women's organisations in Bucharest and Cluj, and especially about the promotion of AUR women standing in local elections: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, Deva. Between 6 November and 5 December 2020, there were 48 posts, all related to the election campaign. Only 17 were related to the messages/interviews/posters/videos of the female candidates(Adela-Ioana Târziu Grăjdeanu, candidate on the AUR Bacău Senate list, and Simona-Teodora Roșca-Neacșu, candidate for the Chamber of Deputies, Cluj-Napoca). In order to illustrate the position of the AUR Women's Organisation towards gender equality, we include a quote from Adela-Ioana Târziu Grăjdeanu announcing in a posting on 7 September 2020 her candidacy for the General Council in the capital: »For those who do not know me, my name is Adela-Ioana Târziu Grăjdeanu, I am 35 years old, and since the age of 16 I have been involved in civic, voluntary, pro-life and pro­tradition activities. I have degrees in law, psychology and theology/social work. For 7 years I have been heading the Cultural, Formative and Recreational Centre- ›Casa cu Rost‹ (The House with Meaning), a place where people return to tradition and beauty, parents and children, young and old learn crafts and activities designed to improve their quality of life, find support, a community of people with solid values and principles.« There is no information on the party's website regarding the existence of a women's organisation, but on Facebook there is the official page Women's Organisation – AUR ⁴, which presents itself as a political organisation. The first post dates from 9 February 2020. The only information on the purpose and objectives of this organisation is summarised in the following sentence:»A page for women who care about the future of their PNL Women's Organisation(OFL). According to the PNL Statute, the Organisation of Liberal Women(OFL)»acts to encourage and promote women in all fields of activity, as well as to 4 Cf https://www.facebook.com/Organizatia-femeilor-AUR-1081317 87429017/(accessed 3 October 2021) 8