Gendered Capitals and Parliamentary Careers in Romania (2000–2024)

This study examines gendered patterns in Romania’s parliamentary representation (2000–2024) through a longitudinal, quantitative design grounded in Bourdieu’s capital framework and feminist institutionalism. We compile a hand-built dataset from official sources covering 3,049 CVs (99.83%), 1,716 asset declarations (85.75%), and 1,925 declarations of interest (96.2%). Methods include descriptive statistics on women’s representation across legislatures, age and mandate counts, Pearson correlations between four forms of capital (educational, political, financial, social) and political career (stratified by gender), and K-means clustering to derive gender-specific career typologies by capital profiles. Results confirm the persistent under-representation of women (13.1% of seats; peak 2016–2020 = 95 women; 2020–2024 = 84) and lower continuity across mandates compared to men. For women, career advancement is most strongly associated with social capital (r ≈ .90), followed by financial (r ≈ .65) and political capital (r ≈ .64), while educational capital shows a weak direct link (r ≈ .07); for men, social and financial capitals are likewise dominant, but education correlates more with career (r ≈ .11). Cluster solutions reveal a small female elite combining high political and social capital versus larger groups with modest political leverage and weak networks; among men, an entrenched elite concentrates both political and social capital, with additional profiles leveraging financial or educational resources. The findings support a structural-barriers interpretation: networks (social capital) are the binding constraint for women, while men appear to convert education and finances into political capital more efficiently. Policy implications include targeted mechanisms to amplify women’s access to formal networks, resources, and decision-making posts, beyond mere numeric presence.