PERCEPTIONS OF GENDER ROLES, FEMINISM AND GENDER EQUALITY analysis would be needed of the tension between traditional values(traditional family, the maternal role of women, the predominance of a heterosexual binary essentialist conception over family and gender roles) and the acceptance of the active status of women on the labour market, with increased recognition of their ability to practice vocations or to have »traditionally male« positions. In recent years, identity issues have gained special importance in Romanian politics and we expect that in the coming years they will become a key element on the public agenda. The reason for this expectation is based on the current regional context (Hungary and Poland have for some time had conservative policies regarding sexual minorities, gender roles, marriage and abortion), the recent history of the main political parties in Romania, which have rather conservative positions on these issues and, last but not least, the presence of the AUR party in Parliament, which gives it a platform to radicalise the message on these issues. Băluță O. 2020). At the level of political parties, at least for parties such as the PMP(People's Movement Party), anti-feminist attitudes predominate, including among female politicians (Norocel 2018). The analysis of Facebook pages of women's organisations also reveals an appreciation of traditional gender roles, with an emphasis on family(traditional) and motherhood/maternalism, sometimes with implicitly anti­feminist accents. Finally, the various proposals and/or bills on the introduction of gender quotas have been rejected and have generated public and political debates that reflect hostility toward gender equality and feminism. For example, Sulfina Barbu's 2011¹⁴ project was attacked both by party colleagues and PSD voices, being categorised as»feminist-Marxist«,»exacerbated communism« or »disturbing leftism«(Băluță I. 2015). The claim of gender equality is thus delegitimised and rejected by means of an association with an unacceptable ideological position in Romanian society since 1989: Marxist-communist ideology. Finally, also in terms of values and representations, reactions to gender equality and feminism(at the societal level) and to the introduction of political quotas(at the political level) are also factors that influence women's political representation. We would like to briefly highlight three elements, starting with existing studies. First of all, gender equality policies were introduced/adopted mainly as a result of the process of accession to the European Union in a top-down manner, with at most formal support from Romanian political parties. Legislation is often vague or has no implementation rules, and the effective implementation of legislative provisions or objectives set by national sectoral strategies is defective, if not to say non-existent(Băluță& Tănăsescu 2018, Băluță I. 2014b, Băluță, Iancu& Dragolea 2007, Albu& Mocanu 2006). Secondly, both in academia and in the public and political spheres, all three decades of democracy have seen a rejection of, and hostility towards, gender/feminist studies and the feminist agenda. For example, Frunză talks about the association of feminism with multiculturalism, both considered responsible for the abolition of the saviour, liberalism(Frunză 2010), and Miroiu offers a bitter rhetorical analysis of mainstream anti-feminism: »What feminist intellectual movement can there be when the great gurus of the nation, people with all the media channels open to them and with great public success remain steadfast in their anti-feminism?«(Miroiu 2006: 142). And in recent years, with the amplification of anti-gender campaigns in Romania, gender, gender equality, and gender studies have been portrayed as threats to tradition and nation(Băluță I. 2020, 14 PL-x 333/2011 on the introduction of a mandatory quota for women's political representation in the Romanian Parliament, which proposed 40% quotas for women on electoral lists.( http://www.cdep.ro/pls/proiecte/upl_pck. proiect?idp=12039) 19