Women voters and trade protectionism in the interwar years

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between the granting of voting rights to women and protectionism during the interwar years. Public opinion survey evidence from the period indicates that women were more likely than men to hold protectionist attitudes, while panel data analysis of average tariff rates shows that when women were entitled to vote tariffs were, on average, higher. This result is supported by an instrumental variables approach using Protestantism as an instrument for female voting rights as well as an event-study analysis.