The impact of female political leadership on gender attitudes: Evidence from Taiwan’s local councils
Journal of Development Economics · 2025 · Yen‐Chien Chen、Elliott Fan、Yu-Hsin Ho、Matthew Yi-Hsiu Lee、Jin‐Tan Liu
中文摘要
尽管拥有共同的儒家文化且经济发展轨迹相似，台湾女性目前享有的社会经济地位远高于韩国和日本女性。本研究考察了造成这一显著差异的一个潜在因素：台湾地方议会的女性保留席位。配额分配规则使女性议员比例形成一个“锯齿状”的比例函数，从而提供了独特的估计机会。我们发现，接触女性政治领导降低了育有两个女儿的母亲选择生育第三个孩子的可能性；而在育有两个孩子但子女性别构成不同的母亲中，并未观察到这种效应，这表明儿子偏好有所减弱。此外，我们发现，性别配额鼓励已婚女性在家庭决策中发挥更积极的作用，并激励女学生选择法律和政治学作为大学专业，而这些领域有利于政治参与。这些性别特定效应支持了如下假说：女性政治领导者能够发挥榜样作用，促使女性形成更加平等的性别态度。
Abstract
Despite the shared Confucian culture and economic development trajectories, women in Taiwan currently enjoy a much greater socio-economic status than their counterparts in South Korea and Japan. This study investigates a potential factor contributing to this striking difference: the reserved seats for women in Taiwan’s local councils. The quota assignment rule creates a ‘zigzag’ proportional function of female councilors, providing a unique estimation opportunity. We find that exposure to female political leadership decreases the likelihood of mothers with two daughters opting for a third child, whereas no such an effect is observed among mothers with two children of other sex compositions, indicating attenuation in son preference. Additionally, we find that the gender quota encourages married women to take on a more active role in household decisions, and motivates female students to pursue a college major in law and political science, fields conducive to political involvement. These gender-specific effects lend support to the hypothesis that female political leaders serve as role models, enticing more egalitarian gender attitudes among women.