Women’s descriptive representation in developed and developing countries

Abstract

Today there is a wealth of research on women’s legislative representation and the factors contributing to it. For example, proportional representation in large multi-member districts and an egalitarian political culture are commonly associated with high rates of women’s representation. However, in the developing world findings are less solid and there is little consensus on the salience of various explanatory variables (for example, political culture or electoral system type) on women’s descriptive representation. In this article, I explore the possibility that the divergent findings that characterise the discipline stem from the different dynamics at work in developed and developing countries. My results indicate that development by itself has a positive and significant impact on the percentage of female representatives. Development also interacts with other variables (for example, women’s participation in the workforce and quotas) in determining the level of women’s representation.