The impact of descriptive representation on substantive representation of women at European and national parliamentary levels. Case Study: Romania

The purpose of this study is to examine the consequences of the level of descriptive representation of women in the National Parliament (NP) and European Parliament (EP) on the substantive representation of women. In the achievement of this endeavour, first, I have examined the legislative initiatives of the NP in the period January 2012 - June 2014. Second, I have examined the activity of the Romanian delegation in the plenary of the EP in the 2009 – 2014 legislature. The findings show that Romanian women members of the EP, corresponding to 36% of the Romanian delegation in the analyzed period, were more active as regards women’s substantive representation than their Romanian male colleagues. Contrariwise, in the NP women are descriptively underrepresented (11,71 %) and neither them, nor their male colleagues are particularly active regarding the substantive representation of women.