Women in politics: why are they under-represented? 

Women are generally under-represented in political offices worldwide, and their under-representation becomes larger in more senior positions. In this brief I review some recent academic literature in economics and political science on the likely causes of women’s under-representation. Broadly speaking, the literature has divided such causes into “supply-side” and “demand-side” factors: the former include women’s potentially lower willingness to run for political office, whereas the latter include voters’ and party leaders’ prejudices against women in politics. Understanding the underlying causes of women’s under-representation in political institutions is crucial in order to design the most effective policies to address the existing gender gaps. In concluding I summarize some of the policies that have been proposed or used to empower women in politics and review the evidence on their effectiveness when available. 

Political empowerment: Georgia’s weakest link towards gender equality progress? 

In this brief we review the most recent evidence on women’s representation in Georgian politics, including the data from the 2020 Parliamentary elections. We find that introducing gender quotas in 2020 party lists have resulted in a slight improvement of the share of women in the Parliament. However, this measure still fell short of its expected effect. We argue that both “supply-side” and “demand-side” factors driving women’s under- representation in the Georgian politics need to be addressed in order for these shares to change in a meaningful way. The recommended policy interventions to help solve the problem in the long run range from maintaining and expanding binding gender quotas for political party candidates, supporting women’s participation on the labor market to tackling cultural stereotypes in the society and financing leadership training programs for women 

Note: these policy briefs are a part of a series produced under FROGEE initiative - the Forum for Research on Gender Economics - supported by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and coordinated by the Stockholm Institute of Transition.