Bridging the gender gap: Women’s education and political representation

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). Using an IV strategy, we find that increased female education significantly increases the percentage of women elected to regional parliaments. We then explore possible channels at the individual level and find that 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.