"Gender Inequality in Political Representation: A Worldwide Comparative Analysis"Lane Kenworthy and Melissa Malami
Social Forces, vol. 78, no. 1, 1999, pp. 235-69
Abstract
We examine the determinants of cross-national variation in the share of parliamentary seats held by women in 1998. The findings of prior research on this issue have differed sharply. Studies focusing on the most affluent longstanding democracies have emphasized the importance of political factors, whereas three of the four studies to include less developed nations found that only socioeconomic and/or cultural factors matter. Our analysis uses improved variable measures, a more complete set of variables, and a larger sample of countries than has heretofore been examined. We find that political, socioeconomic, and cultural factors are each important. Specifically, electoral system structure, left party government, the timing of women's suffrage, the share of women in professional occupations, and cultural attitudes toward the role of women in politics each play a role in accounting for variation in the degree of gender inequality in political representation around the world.
Data set
Click here to access the data set. It is in Microsoft Excel 97. There are 191 countries, though only 146 are included in the analyses. For variable definitions and data sources, see Table 2 of the article. The variables are:
COUNTRY Country name
COUNTRY#
FEMLEGIS Women's share of parliamentary seats, 1998
ELECSYST Structure of the electoral system
LFTPARTY Left party government
FEMSUFRG Timing of women's suffrage
DEMOC Degree of democracy
MARXLEN Marxist-Leninist government
FEMEDUC Women's educational attainment
FEMLABOR Women's share of the labor force
FEMPROF Women in professional occupations
FEMORG Strength of the women's movement
GDPPC Level of economic development
REL.CATH Dummy variable for Catholicism
REL.ISLAM Dummy variable for Islam
REL.OTHR Dummy variable for other (non-Protestant) religions
RATIFIC Ratification of U.N. Convention
ABORTLEG Abortion rights
REG.AFRI Dummy variable for Sub-Saharan Africa
REG.MIDE Dummy variable for the Middle East and North Africa
REG.ASIA Dummy variable for Asia and the Pacific
REG.LATA Dummy variable for Latin America and the Caribbean
REG.EEUR Dummy variable for Eastern Europe
REG.SCAN Dummy variable for Scandinavia
FILT146 Dummy variable for countries included in Table 3, models A and B
FILT116 Dummy variable for countries included in Table 3, models C and D
FILT20 Dummy variable for countries included in Table 3, model EAdditional variables used in ancillary analyses are available on request.