Fighting violence against women: The role of female political representation

We investigate the effect of women’s political leadership in local government on domestic violence against women. Using a regression discontinuity design, we compare Brazilian municipalities where a female candidate barely won to those where a female candidate barely lost mayoral elections. We find...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of development economics 2023-09, Vol.164, p.103140, Article 103140
Main Authors: Bochenkova, Alena, Buonanno, Paolo, Galletta, Sergio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brazil
Female politicians
Femicide
Gender
RDD
Violence
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Summary:We investigate the effect of women’s political leadership in local government on domestic violence against women. Using a regression discontinuity design, we compare Brazilian municipalities where a female candidate barely won to those where a female candidate barely lost mayoral elections. We find that the presence of a female mayor leads to a 50% average reduction in both the homicide rate and violence against women over a four-year term. These results are not attributable to pre-existing municipal characteristics or other observable mayor attributes. Collectively, our findings offer compelling evidence that women in office play a significant role in effectively addressing violence against women. •Impact of Women’s Political Leadership on homicides and violence against women.•RDD comparing Brazilian cities where a woman barely won or lost a mayoral election.•Female mayors correlate with a 50% reduction in homicides and violence against women.•Findings suggest that female mayors play a role in shaping gender-specific policies.
ISSN:0304-3878
1872-6089
DOI:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103140