IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/289866.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making Women Visible: How Gender Quotas Shape Global Attitudes toward Women in Politics

Author

Listed:
  • Kim, Jessica
  • Fallon, Kathleen M.

Abstract

Since the 1990s, gender quotas have been celebrated for improving women’s equality. Yet their cross-national and longitudinal impact on attitudes toward female politicians and the mechanism through which this process occurs are not well understood. Using multilevel modeling on 87 nations, we examine how different types of quotas, with varied features and levels of strength, shape beliefs about women in politics. We give particular attention to the mechanism of visibility created by quotas in impacting attitudes. Results suggest that unlike quotas with features facilitating low visibility (i.e., weak quotas), those producing high visibility (i.e., robust quotas) significantly impact public approval of women in politics. However, the direction of this effect varies by quota type. Social context also matters. Robust quota effects—both positive and negative—are especially pronounced in democracies but are insignificant in nondemocracies. Limited differences by gender (men versus women) emerge. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Kim, Jessica & Fallon, Kathleen M., 2023. "Making Women Visible: How Gender Quotas Shape Global Attitudes toward Women in Politics," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 19(4), pages 981-1006.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:289866
    DOI: 10.1017/S1743923X23000089
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/289866/1/Kim-Fallon-Making-Women-Visible.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1017/S1743923X23000089?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fred Pampel, 2011. "Cohort change, diffusion, and support for gender egalitarianism in cross-national perspective," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 25(21), pages 667-694.
    2. Stegmueller, Daniel, 2011. "Apples and Oranges? The Problem of Equivalence in Comparative Research," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(4), pages 471-487.
    3. De Paola, Maria & Scoppa, Vincenzo & Lombardo, Rosetta, 2010. "Can gender quotas break down negative stereotypes? Evidence from changes in electoral rules," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(5-6), pages 344-353, June.
    4. Maike Damme & Dimitris Pavlopoulos, 2022. "Gender Ideology in Europe: Plotting Normative Types in a Multidimensional Space," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 861-891, November.
    5. Bush, Sarah Sunn, 2011. "International Politics and the Spread of Quotas for Women in Legislatures," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(1), pages 103-137, January.
    6. Murray, Rainbow, 2014. "Quotas for Men: Reframing Gender Quotas as a Means of Improving Representation for All," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(3), pages 520-532, August.
    7. Christina Wolbrecht & David E. Campbell, 2007. "Leading by Example: Female Members of Parliament as Political Role Models," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 921-939, October.
    8. Heisig, Jan Paul & Schaeffer, Merlin, 2018. "Why You Should Always Include a Random Slope for the Lower-Level Variable Involved in a Cross-Level Interaction," SocArXiv bwqtd, Center for Open Science.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jay Euijung Lee & Martina Zanella, 2024. "Learning about women's competence: The dynamic response of political parties to gender quotas in South Korea," CEP Discussion Papers dp2029, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hessami, Zohal & da Fonseca, Mariana Lopes, 2020. "Female political representation and substantive effects on policies: A literature review," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. Ramachandra, Varun Karekurve, 2024. "Gender quotas and upward political mobility in India," SocArXiv 4zqve, Center for Open Science.
    3. Bozzano, Monica, 2017. "On the historical roots of women's empowerment across Italian provinces: religion or family culture?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 24-46.
    4. Jekaterina Kuliomina, 2016. "Does Election of an Additional Female Councilor Increase Women's Candidacy in the Future?," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp559, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    5. Quentin Lippmann, 2023. "Persistence of incumbents and female access to political positions," Post-Print hal-04103626, HAL.
    6. Lippmann, Quentin, 2023. "Persistence of incumbents and female access to political positions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 327-349.
    7. Arvate, Paulo & Firpo, Sergio & Pieri, Renan, 2021. "Can women's performance in elections determine the engagement of adolescent girls in politics?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    8. Joo, Hailey Hayeon & Lee, Jungmin, 2018. "Encountering female politicians," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 88-122.
    9. Kikuta,Kyosuke & Hanayama,Manaho, 2023. "Does the Nobel Peace Prize Improve Women’s Rights? Prize and Praise in International Relations," IDE Discussion Papers 903, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    10. Daniele, Gianmarco, 2019. "Strike one to educate one hundred: Organized crime, political selection and politicians’ ability," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 650-662.
    11. Gonzalez-Eiras, Martín & Sanz, Carlos, 2021. "Women’s representation in politics: The effect of electoral systems," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    12. Mascia, Danilo V. & Rossi, Stefania P.S., 2017. "Is there a gender effect on the cost of bank financing?," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 136-153.
    13. Nicolas GAVOILLE & Jean-Michel JOSSELIN & Fabio PADOVANO, 2014. "What do you know about your mayor? Voters’ information and jurisdiction size," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2014-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy, revised Aug 2015.
    14. Migheli, Matteo, 2022. "Lost in election. How different electoral systems translate the voting gender gap into gender representation bias," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    15. Paola Profeta & Eleanor Woodhouse, 2018. "Do Electoral Rules Matter for Female Representation?," Working Papers 121, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    16. Ermini, Barbara & Santolini, Raffaella & Ciommi, Mariateresa, 2023. "Equitable and sustainable well-being in Italian municipalities: Do women in politics make the difference?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    17. Braendle, Thomas, 2013. "Do Institutions Affect Citizens' Selection into Politics?," Working papers 2013/04, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    18. Chauvin, Juan Pablo & Tricaud, Clemence, 2022. "Gender and Electoral Incentives: Evidence from Crisis Response," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12411, Inter-American Development Bank.
    19. Thushyanthan Baskaran & Zohal Hessami, 2018. "Does the Election of a Female Leader Clear the Way for More Women in Politics?," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 95-121, August.
    20. Johnson, Cathryn Evangeline, 2021. "Connecting Malian and Burkinabe women’s local experiences of livelihood security to how they participate in politics," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:289866. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.