The effect of increased women's legislative representation on women's well-being

Abstract

We analyze the causal effects of large and sustained increases in female legislative representation on several measures of women's well-being. Across all our outcome variables, we find no significant results. These null results continue to hold when we use different criteria for defining a significant increase or allow for differences in treatment effects based on the country's political regime. We conclude that, at least on average, this increased representation does not significantly increase measures of women's well-being.