Gender matters in the legislature

Westfall, Aubrey and Carissa Chantiles. ”The Political Cure: Gender Quotas and Women’s Health.” Politics & Gender, 12(3): 469-490 .

Professor Westfall and her former student and co-author examine the political gender quotas and argue that the different forms in which quotas are implemented result in diverse effects in the substantive representation of women’s issues. Using women’s health to illustrate the substantive effect of women’s political participation through quotas, they utilize multilevel models to find that quotas are effective at placing women into legislative office, and that this descriptive representation is associated with positive conditions for women’s health. However, the strength of the relationship depends on the type of quota implemented.

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