Fighting violence against women: The role of female political representation

Abstract

We investigate the effect of women’s political leadership in local government on domestic violence against women. Using a regression discontinuity design, we compare Brazilian municipalities where a female candidate barely won to those where a female candidate barely lost mayoral elections. We find that the presence of a female mayor leads to a 50% average reduction in both the homicide rate and violence against women over a four-year term. These results are not attributable to pre-existing municipal characteristics or other observable mayor attributes. Collectively, our findings offer compelling evidence that women in office play a significant role in effectively addressing violence against women.

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