ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates Roma women's exclusion from local political life in Romania by focusing on mainstream political parties and their nomination process. It considers the 2016 local elections and uses a combination of quantitative (dataset of 289 party lists) and qualitative methods (39 interviews with local party leaders from the five major parties). It not only investigates how Roma women are the most disadvantaged among the four groups studied (Roma women and men and Romanian women and men), but also argues that their exclusion cannot be equalled with either of the other discriminated groups (Roma men and women). While Romanian women or Roma men face discrimination based on gender and ethnicity and/or socio-economic situation, they are still nominated, although at different rates. Through an intersectional lens, this chapter identifies three layers of the exclusion of Roma women from local political representation: socio-economic situation (supported by clientelism), gender, and ethnicity (reinforced through patriarchal and racist nomination rules and norms). Ultimately, these factors construct and maintain Roma women's near-total absence from candidate lists, therefore demonstrating that without considering context and the different intersections of oppression and privilege, Roma women's exclusion cannot be fully understood.
