WOMEN'S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION AND ITS IMPACT ON POLICIES AND OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN AND WOMEN

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the question- does having more women in politics improve the lives of children and women? This thesis comprises three standalone research articles that address this question in different contexts. The first article employs gender quotas as an instrumental variable to establish the causal effect of women's representation across nations on children's health outcomes. The findings reveal that countries with a higher proportion of women in national parliaments witness lower neonatal and infant mortality rates and higher immunization coverage. In the second article, I focus on the state legislatures in India, for studying the impact of women’s leadership on access to an early childhood development program. The analysis reveals that female politicians exert a more substantial impact compared to their male counterparts on program accessibility. The third article empirically assesses whether the legislative behavior of female parliamentarians in the European Parliament significantly differs from that of their male counterparts. The results suggest that while women legislators exhibit stronger support for gender equality legislation compared to male legislators, this support is contingent on the performance of the legislator's political party in their home country's national elections and proximity to the election.