Abstract
Gender quotas have been adopted in over a hundred countries in an effort to address gender disparities in national legislatures. Yet the determinants of citizen support for gender quota policies remain largely understudied. We develop a theory that emphasizes the impact of institutional performance and political values to explain citizen support for gender quotas and how these two factors differentially influence men’s and women’s quota support. Based on data for 24 Latin American countries, we find that citizens in countries with relatively good governance quality who express a strong preference for government involvement to improve citizens’ well-being show the highest levels of quota support. Further, whereas good governance increases quota support at a higher rate among men than women, preferences for government involvement exert a stronger influence on women’s support for quotas. Consequently, good governance quality reduces the gender gap in quota support by substantially increasing men’s support for quotas.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-2016
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1086/685379
Repository Citation
Barnes, Tiffany D. and Córdova, Abby, "Making Space for Women: Explaining Citizen Support for Legislative Gender Quotas in Latin America" (2016). Political Science Faculty Publications. 9.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/polsci_facpub/9
Appendix
Notes/Citation Information
Published in The Journal of Politics, v. 78, no. 3.
© 2016 by the Southern Political Science Association. All rights reserved.
The copyright holder has granted the permission for posting the article here.