Gender and lawmaking in times of quotas

This article studies gender differences in lawmaking in a context of gender quotas. I use two empirical strategies to randomize the gender of legislators and text analysis to identify the topics of the legislation in the French Parliament from 2001 to 2017. Across the two Houses, I find consistent evidence that female legislators work on different topics than men. I show that they are most active on women’s issues while men seem more involved in military issues. I provide evidence that these differences partly stem from legislators’ individual interest. From a public policy perspective, the results suggest that gender quotas are likely to lead to a shift in lawmaking and a greater prevalence of women’s issues in Parliament.