Do Women Always Represent Women? The Effects of Gender Quotas on Substantive Representation

Although studies show that the increasing number of women in the legislature has led to greater representation in social policies, it is often unclear whether the effect is significant for quota-elected women and other legislators. In this study, we examine the case of Taiwan, where quotas have been implemented on one tier in a mixed electoral system. We compiled a data set from over 20 years of records to investigate how quotas affect the initiation and passage of legislation concerning welfare, health, and education issues. Using a difference-in-differences approach coupled with instrumental variable design, we find that gender quotas influence quota-elected women profoundly in initiating welfare and education issues. Moreover, quotas increase the probability of quota-elected women enacting further education issues into law. A related pattern could not be observed for non-quota-elected women throughout the legislative process. Moreover, the findings reveal no spillover effect of quotas on these issues for elected men.