Educate Some to Represent Many? Education and Female Political Representation in Europe

Luna Bellani and Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo ()
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Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo: Universidad Pablo de Olavide

No 16539, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Gender disparity is present in many aspects of life, especially in politics. This paper provides new evidence on the impact of women's education on political representation focusing on several European countries. We combine multi-country data from the Gender Statistics Database of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and from the European Social Survey (ESS). We find increased female education significantly raises the percentage of women being elected to regional parliaments. We then explore possible channels at the individual level and find education increases women's interest in politics and induces more egalitarian views about gender roles in society among women, although it fails to do so among men.

Keywords: compulsory schooling reforms; education; ESS; female political participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I21 I23 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2023-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-gen, nep-lma and nep-pol
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Published - revised version published as 'Bridging the Gender Gap: Women’s Education and Political Representation' in: Economics of Education Review, 2025, 104, 102605

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Working Paper: Educate Some to Represent Many? Education and Female Political Representation in Europe (2023)
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