Women's political representation and fertility: Evidence from gender quotas in Sub-Saharan Africa

Stefanie Pechar, Renate Hartwig and Jan Priebe

No 1223, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: We study how women's political representation affects fertility in sub-Saharan Africa. Leveraging the staggered adoption of reserved-seat gender quotas across the region and a heterogeneity-robust difference-in-differences estimator, we find that quotas increased women's parliamentary representation by 13.3 percentage points and reduced the total fertility rate by 0.23 births per woman. The effect follows a policy-to-behavior pathway: resources shift toward family planning and reproductive health, contraceptive use increases, and unmet need declines; individual-level data further show delayed marriage and later first births. Women's political representation thus translates into greater policy emphasis on reproductive health, illustrating how legislative representation shapes policy outcomes.

Keywords: Family Planning; Female Political Representation; Fertility; Gender Quotas; Reserved Seats; Sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 I18 J13 J16 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:343542

DOI: 10.4419/96973408

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