WOMENS REPRESENTATION IN NATIONAL LEGISLATURES - DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES

This note expands research on representation of women in national legi slatures. Existing models are tested on newer data in advanced industr ialized democracies, and these models are then applied to a sample of democracies in developing countries. There are striking differences ac ross the two samples. While a proportional representation electoral sy stem, women's participation in the labor force, the cultural standing of women, and the country's level of development all have positive eff ects on female representation in OECD democracies, none of these varia bles have a statistically significant and positive effect in less deve loped countries. These findings strongly suggest the existence of a th reshold. Only after that threshold is passed do proportional represent ation, labor force participation, and cultural standing exert positive influences on the representation of women.