Women Political Representation and International Compliance Against Human Trafficking

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of an international regime to combat human trafficking. Little, however, is understood about the determinants of states' compliance with international agreements against human trafficking. The compliance literature does not directly speak to this issue but offers generalized theoretical explanations of states' compliance that feature the importance of hegemonic power, international institutions, and domestic political processes. This study considers the effects of women representation on states' compliance with international law against human trafficking by estimating data for 146 countries using fixed effects and three-stage-least-square estimators that address issues of endogeneity. After controlling for alternate theoretical explanations, the finding suggests that while increases in the percent of women legislators and cabinet ministers are positively associated with states' compliance with anti-human trafficking rules, the opposite is true regarding their male counterparts. However, increases in the percent of men legislators are positively associated with states' compliance only when women's parliamentary caucuses are present in countries' legislative deliberations and when such deliberations are influenced by the women's movement.