dollars in purchasing power parity. Data for both of these measures were taken from the
World Bank (2001).
How recently a nation has granted women political rights is a final example that
clearly gives some indication of a nation’s acceptance of a fuller political role for women.
There is some evidence that suggests that the earlier women gained political rights, the
greater their representation in legislatures (Paskeviciute 2002; Studlar and McAllister
2002a,b; Siaroff 2000; Reynolds 1999; Rule 1994b; Rule 1981) and in cabinets
(Reynolds 1999). We therefore include the variable Suffrage, which is simply the
number of years since women’s suffrage was granted and is taken from the IPU
Taken together, each of these factors is hypothesized to influence the
appointment of women to the cabinets of industrialized democracies as follows:
[Table 1 here]
The Influence of Institutional Structures
While these political and social factors are likely to help determine a baseline for
women’s success in winning appointment, the question remains as to whether this
foundation can then be built upon by women-friendly political institutions (Reynolds
1999, 572). Even more important is the question of whether particular institutional
structures can overcome baseline conditions that are unfavorable to women’s success.
What influence do different institutional forms have in providing representation and
outcomes consistent with the desires of the public? Do some democratic institutional
4
Since nearly all of the countries in our pool extended women’s suffrage over 25 years before our first
data point, and because there is no theoretical reason to believe that, for example, 84 years since
suffrage should lead to higher level of representation than, say 80 years, we code this as a constant.
9
Convention