Maternal Mortality and Women’s Political Power
Key Takeaways
Policies to increasing women’s political representation lead significant reductions maternal mortality.
The key mechanisms are increases in access to key health services, reductions in fertility, and improvements in women’s education.
Political power can be an important tool to improve health in population groups otherwise lacking access to opportunity.
Executive Summary
Introduction
Despite knowledge and resources that could prevent most deaths during childbirth, maternal mortality remains high all over the world. One reason for this is that, many times, groups affected by a certain health condition lack the power to call attention to the problem and obtain resources to solve it. In this case, the lack of political agency and economic power among women may act as a barrier to investing and adopting technologies that make childbirth safer.
Main Findings
- Maternal mortality dropped sharply and persistently by about 7-12% following the adoption of parliamentary gender quotas.
- Health service use increased, with skilled birth attendance rising by roughly 5–8 percentage points and prenatal care utilization rising by about 4–8 percentage points after quota implementation.
- Fertility declined by approximately 6–7% following quotas, consistent with expanded access to reproductive health and family planning.
- Young women’s schooling increased, with an average rise of about half a year in educational attainment, suggesting broader social impacts of political representation.
Conclusion
Expanding women’s political representation through gender quota legislation led to substantial and sustained reductions in maternal mortality worldwide. These improvements accrued due to multiple mechanisms, including improvements in availability of key health services, reduced fertility, and expanded social and economic opportunity. The results highlight political empowerment as a powerful and effective policy lever for improving health and opportunity.