Does women's political empowerment promote access to drinking water in developing countries? Effects and transmission channels

Does women's political empowerment promote access to drinking water in developing countries? Effects and transmission channels | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Does women's political empowerment promote access to drinking water in developing countries? Effects and transmission channels François-Cyrille EYEGHE-NTOUTOUME This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8279784/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The link between women's political empowerment and access to safe drinking water remains largely unexplored, particularly in the context of developing countries. Furthermore, existing literature often overlooks the channels through which women's political empowerment influences access to safe drinking water, limiting the overall understanding of this relationship. This study makes a significant contribution to the literature by examining the effect of women's political empowerment on access to safe drinking water. Using a panel of 65 developing countries over the period 2000–2022, we employ a two-stage system GMM method to analyse this dynamic. The results show that women's political empowerment does not have a significant direct effect on access to safe drinking water. However, using a structural equation mediation approach, we find that women's political empowerment improves access to safe drinking water through two channels: political stability and the absence of violence, and sanitation. JEL Classification O15, O17, J16, Q25, D72 Social science/Environmental studies Scientific community and society/Geography Social science/Geography Social science/Politics and international relations Social science/Social policy Women's political empowerment access to drinking water mediation GMM in systems developing countries Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files REPLICATIONDOFILE.txt TableA1VariableDefinitionsEnglish.pdf DATAARTICLEWOMEN.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8279784","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":579876308,"identity":"99e7545b-5ae4-4fe6-ae19-f350ad20517e","order_by":0,"name":"François-Cyrille EYEGHE-NTOUTOUME","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABCUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYJCCAw8KwDQbA0MFmxxEhJCWBAOYljN8xhARQtbAtTC2yCU2gEXwqOafkfsQaIuNnMHx9msPPjaYpc8POwwUYbCT023ArkXiRroBUEuascGZM+WGM3ek5W68nQYUYUg2NjuAXYuBRBrIL4cTN9zISZPmPXMsd+PsBJCWA4nb8Gv5X7/h/ps06b9t/9MNZ6d/IEYLEN1gPybN2MaWIC+dg98WiTPPQFqSDWeeyWGT7DnDZrhBOqcAJILTL/ztacwfPlTYyfMdP/5M4kcFm7z87PTNIBE5XFoYBBIgtMIBHkjsGIBVGuBQDrYGapZ8A/sDKAOP6lEwCkbBKBiRAABu/Wpv2dAq6AAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"Omar Bongo University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"François-Cyrille","middleName":"","lastName":"EYEGHE-NTOUTOUME","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-12-04 13:23:20","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8279784/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8279784/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":106384836,"identity":"9c06182e-0d7e-4354-9179-315603102570","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-08 05:57:04","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":629167,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"womenspoliticalempowermentandacceswater1revised2.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8279784/v1_covered_40e33464-f3dc-4fd4-a0db-b7c36c73edf7.pdf"},{"id":101251732,"identity":"3ffa733d-b175-4e4d-8530-a6a124ad9b65","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-27 17:50:52","extension":"txt","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":3315,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"REPLICATIONDOFILE.txt","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8279784/v1/bac02737d52a8e2b47083c37.txt"},{"id":101397705,"identity":"90bbc2bb-4d5f-4706-8180-ee66afff406e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-29 09:35:41","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":63383,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TableA1VariableDefinitionsEnglish.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8279784/v1/fda331296a4f22879303b4db.pdf"},{"id":101251735,"identity":"30f7280b-fa05-4ecf-955c-aef8b8abeba8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-01-27 17:50:52","extension":"xlsx","order_by":2,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":722091,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"DATAARTICLEWOMEN.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8279784/v1/8c2f37d8171e19646aa9faa5.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Does women's political empowerment promote access to drinking water in developing countries? 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