Windows of Political Opportunity: Institutional Instability and Gender Inequality in the World's National Legislatures

Abstract

Although women remain underrepresented in national politics throughout the world, they have also made significant progress toward equality in recent decades. Yet, for the almost 2 billion women living under regimes with limited political rights and civil liberties, we know little about the processes that facilitate their entry into politics. One broad mechanism that may impact women under both democratic and closed systems is elite turnover. In this article, I compare two routes to elite turnover, elections and legislative interruptions, and assess their impact on women's parliamentary representation. Legislative interruptions refer to any undemocratic or unconstitutional break in a country's legislature lasting at least six months. I explore the effects of elections and legislative interruptions on women's parliamentary representation using data from the Women in Parliaments Longitudinal Project, which covers more than 150 countries. Analyzing the likelihood that women will achieve 10 percent in parliament between 1950 and 2000, I find that the effect of legislative interruptions is similar in magnitude to the effect of democratic elections. Although breaks lasting three to ten years increase the likelihood that women will reach the 10 percent threshold, the effect of the longest legislative breaks is negative. Interruptions are also less effective vehicles for representation when considering more significant barriers—15 percent and 20 percent women in parliament. Across each of these outcomes, frequent interruptions hinder women's political progress. In sum, nondemocratic routes to elite turnover can foster real gains in women's representation, but only when legislative breaks are rare. Furthermore, nondemocratic routes to elite turnover are ultimately less effective than regular democratic elections at facilitating high levels of women in politics.