In the final days of 2020 Romania witnessed a significant moment in its history when Anca Dragu was appointed the first female leader of the upper house of the Romanian parliament.

Dragu's appointment made her the second highest ranking official in the Romanian state. As the president of the Senate, she is first in line to succeed to the presidential powers and duties in the event the Romanian head of state is incapacitated, impeached or has to resign.

Dragu, who previously served as Romania's finance minister, told CGTN that she felt compelled to move into politics several years ago and wants to make change happen rather than merely commentate from the sidelines.

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She said: "I realized that if you want to change something, it's good that you get involved rather than just looking from the side and just criticizing or being unhappy with what is going on. 

"Moreover, I had the great honor and opportunity to be finance minister in a technocrat government and that gave me the opportunity to see that, indeed, one can launch many good public policies that would help the country to develop, to modernize and to move forward."

Dragu is one of a growing number of influential female politicians across Europe. In late January, Estonia became the first republic in the world where both the head of state and the head of government are women, elected by public vote. 

Moldova, Romania's eastern neighbor, is also on the cusp of an all-female leadership. Elected in November as the country's first ever female president, Maia Sandu could be joined by a female prime minister: she has proposed Natalia Gavrilita as prime minister.

Other examples from the region include Serbia, where Ana Brnabic was appointed the first female and the first openly gay prime minister. Slovakia and Georgia have also elected Zuzana Caputova and Salome Zurabishvili as their countries' first female heads of state.

Dragu says she is now keen to inspire other women to follow in her footsteps. "If I look at the male colleagues, maybe it's easier for them," she added. "But I assume the fact that I belong to a sort of minority for the moment – and it's my responsibility to be present, to be there, to be active, to be somehow impeccable, so I inspire some other women."

Women are also at the center of her political vision for Romania. She said: "I want to use the support of the European community, especially women leaders in Europe and also the input from national NGOs. 

"Of course on my agenda there are economic topics. I'm an economist and I worked for many years in this field. But domestic violence and gender equality are very important and, you know, this would help the economy a lot. 

"We have womenomics. Yes, that's the branch of economics where we use the force and the power of women to contribute to the economy, to GDP growth and so on."