FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG POLITICAL REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ROMANIA Of course, the discussion on societal values and the gender contract is broader, with some contradictory aspects, and requires an analysis in and of itself. However, we note that there is a greater openness to gender equality in society, and an increased acceptance of women in decision-making positions (although the preference remains for men). By comparison, the political world seems trapped in a system that overvalues male politicians. The presence of women in political positions has decreased or, in rarer cases, has not changed. Women are included on the lists of candidates(in part also to comply with the provisions that require the lists to include a certain proportion of women), but in rather ineligible places, eliminating from the start their chances of an honest electoral fight, in which they might be able to be elected to the positions they want. The discussion about political representation of women in Romania must be placed in an international context in order to view the above changes in a comparative perspective. To this end, we use data from the European Values Study and have chosen as a comparison group the cluster of member countries of the European Union. Figure 6 Perceptions of the role of women and men in politics and business(2017-2020) 60% Men are better political leaders than women (% agree) Slovakia 50% Lithuania Bulgaria 40% Czech Republic Estonia Romania Hungary 30% Poland Austria 20% Portugal Ital y Croa t ia France Netherlands United Kingdom Sweden 10% Spain Finland Germany Denmark Iceland Norway Sweden Slovenia 0% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% Data source: European Values Study(2020). Men are better at business than women(% agree) Looking at things from this perspective, changes over the last twenty years in the role of women in society are less impressive. Compared to the other countries in the European Union, Romania's population still seems to support a traditional model, in which a single characteristic – being a woman or being a man – dictates what one has to do in life. Thus, 48% of Romanians believe that the role of men is to earn money and that of women is to take care of home and family, compared to only 26% on average in the EU or less than 10% in Scandinavian countries. Similarly, compared to the rest of the EU countries included in the European Values Study(see Figure 6) Romania stands out with large percentages of the population who believe that men are better political leaders than women(40%) or that men are better at business than women(36%). reports on gender equality at international level. We merely cite in this regard the European Gender Equality Index(EIGE) ¹³, where of the six areas that are considered to reflect the extent to which equality between women and men is achieved, the European average has the lowest value in terms of women's participation in decision-making: 54.5%(the general European average being 67.9%). Romania ranks 26th out of 28, with an overall score of 54.4%. The field of women's access to power registers the lowest score(37.5%), with political representation registering 41.6%. It should be noted that this value is for 2020, so it was based on data available before recent elections. At the level of Romanian society, concerning the gender contract and societal values regarding gender equality, a more careful The data presented here show that in the last twenty years Romania has become more open to gender equality, but is still at a significant distance from the way other European Union Member States relate to this issue. This situation is reflected in all 13 https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2020(acces sed 10 October 2021) 18