Underrepresentation of women in the parliament of the Republic of Moldova. A gender perspective on democratic development in the country.

Abstract: Women’s participation in politics is an interesting subject to study. The value of the study is even more meaningful if it considers the gender perspective. Of course, the representation of women in politics is not a new issue to make one’s research on, yet now it is very up to date when new democratic states emerge and higher numbers of women tend to become politically active. At the same time just a very small amount of them are actually enjoying the possibility of being elected. This study presents a gender perspective on women’s representation in the national parliament in the Republic of Moldova – the poorest country in Europe. In the study I try to give a comprehensive view on the issue of underrepresentation in connection with democratic development of the country.