Mandated representation: the effect of legislative gender quotas on attitudes toward gender equality
Date of Award
1-1-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Political Science
First Advisor
Yael Zeira
Second Advisor
Susan Allen
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
Do gender quotas actually change attitudes toward gender equality? Research suggests that quotas influence gender norms but very little work has looked at whether individual attitudes themselves change when gender quotas are enacted. This paper attempts to fill this void by studying the relationship between quota implementation and gender attitudes at a cross-national level using longitudinal survey data from the World Values Survey in a two-level random intercept multi-level model. This type of model is appropriate because it does not assume that individual observations in the data are independent from one another. The individual respondents from the WVS data are nested within specific countries and years and thus do not constitute independent observations. My results show a statistically significant negative relationship between implemented gender quotas and positive gender equality attitudes. This outcome does not reflect an unimportant relationship between quota implementation and gender attitudes but implies missing components. I conclude by discussing the importance of international influence to future research.
Recommended Citation
Suray, Rustin, "Mandated representation: the effect of legislative gender quotas on attitudes toward gender equality" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1788.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1788