Gendered accountability: when and why do women’s policy priorities get implemented?

Recent decades have seen a surge in women occupying positions of political power. This has been welcomed in part as a means of achieving better policy outcomes for women. We interrogate this proposition, developing a “gendered accountability” framework to explain when and how female representation p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European political science review 2021-02, Vol.13 (1), p.3-21
Main Authors: Mechkova, Valeriya, Carlitz, Ruth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountability
Annan samhällsvetenskap
Child mortality
Childrens health
Civil society
Elections
Electoral systems
Expenditures
Females
Gender equity
Infant mortality
Legislatures
Media and Communications
Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap
Other Social Sciences
Policy implementation
Political power
Political representation
Political Science
Politics
public good provision
Public policy
Quotas
representation
Social and Economic Geography
Social och ekonomisk geografi
Statsvetenskap
Women
Women and politics
women in politics
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Summary:Recent decades have seen a surge in women occupying positions of political power. This has been welcomed in part as a means of achieving better policy outcomes for women. We interrogate this proposition, developing a “gendered accountability” framework to explain when and how female representation promotes the implementation of policies that women prioritize. Our empirical analysis applies this framework to sub-Saharan Africa, home to the largest recent expansion in women’s political representation. We find that increased female representation in the legislature is robustly associated with reduced infant and child mortality as well as greater spending on health. Effects are magnified when women are more active in civil society and appear primarily in countries that have gender quotas and proportional electoral systems. Thus, while female representation can lead to improved policy outcomes for women, the process is not automatic and is unlikely to occur absent key institutional and societal conditions.
ISSN:1755-7739
1755-7747
1755-7747
DOI:10.1017/S1755773920000272