Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Making Space For Women: Explaining Citizen Support For Legislative Gender Quotas In Latin America, Tiffany D. Barnes, Abby Córdova

Political Science Faculty Publications

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 …