Maternal Mortality and Women’s Political Participation

We show that large declines in maternal mortality can be achieved by raising women’s political participation. We estimate that the recent wave of quotas for women in parliament in low income countries has resulted in a 9 to 12% decline in maternal mortality. Among mechanisms are that gender quotas lead to an 8 to 10% increase in skilled birth attendance, a 6 to 12% increase in prenatal care utilization and a 4 to 11% decrease in birth rates. JEL codes I14, I15, O15.