Summer 2025 Roundup

Articles on abortion liberalization, women's surveys, and more

Jul 13, 2025

It has been a while, so there are quite a few papers to catch up on. Here is a list of published/working papers with their abstracts in lieu of my usual summaries. As usual, they are papers on politics and gender with a focus on the Global South.

In other news, check out a new podcast series by Kate Baldwin (Yale), Ellen Lust (Cornell), and Ph.D. students from Yale, "Pathbreaking Women in Comparative Politics," which features interviews with women who have made significant contributions in comparative political science. The first podcast focuses on the work of Margaret Levi, Professor Emerita of Political Science, Stanford University. Future podcasts will feature interviews with Barbara Geddes, Valerie Bunce, and Susan Rose Ackerman.

Anderson, Siwan, Sophia du Plessis, Sahar Parsa, and James A. Robinson. The Persistence of Female Political Power in Africa. No. w33838. National Bureau of Economic Research (2025).

Abstract: Research on female political representation has tended to overlook the traditional role of women as leaders across many societies. Our study aims to address this gap by investigating the enduring influence of historical female political leadership on contemporary formal political representation in Africa. We test for this persistence by compiling two original datasets: one detailing female political leadership in precolonial societies and another on current female representation in local elections. Our findings indicate that ethnic groups historically allowing women in leadership roles in politics do tend to have a higher proportion of elected female representatives in today’s formal local political institutions. We also observe that institutional, rather than economic, factors significantly shape the traditional political influence of women. Moreover, in accordance with historical accounts, we uncover evidence of a reversal of female political power due to institutional changes enforced by colonial powers.

Arriola, Leonardo R., Donghyun Danny Choi, Justine M. Davis, Melanie L. Phillips, and Lise Rakner. "Policymakers’ Abortion Preferences: Understanding the Intersection of Gender and Wealth." Comparative Political Studies 58, no. 1 (2025): 78-121.

Abstract: When are politicians willing to liberalize abortion laws? While restricted access to legal abortion affects millions of women around the world, there is relatively little understanding of the factors shaping the views of politicians who craft or uphold such restrictive laws. This study examines the impact of a public health framing commonly employed by activists to persuade politicians to reform abortion laws. We provide evidence that politicians’ preferences toward abortion reforms are shaped by the intersection of gender and wealth. Drawing on a survey experiment conducted among more than 600 politicians in Zambia, we show that only women politicians from less wealthy backgrounds are more likely to support policy liberalization after being exposed to a public health framing. These findings underscore how economic inequalities can affect the substantive representation of women’s interests and provide a baseline for further research on the use of framing strategies in other developing country contexts.

Barnes, Mariel J. and Sabrina M. Karim. “The Manosphere and Politics.” Comparative Political Studies (2025).

Abstract: The revived men’s movement, colloquially the “manosphere,” has recently increased in prominence and influence, and has been connected to numerous instances of violence, including mass shootings targeting women. Despite this, political science has paid scant attention to the manosphere, and the tactics these groups use against women, feminism, and gender equality, including violence. This theory-building paper begins to fill this gap by focusing on two goals. First, using an original dataset of manosphere blogs, forums, and websites, we provide a descriptive analysis of the manosphere. Second, we develop an original typology of the manosphere along two dimensions — communitarianism and their interactions with women — which helps us theorize about which manosphere subgroups are more prone to use violence. We also compare cases from each subgroup to show initial proof of concept for our theory. Ultimately, we show how excluding the manosphere from political conversation inhibits a comprehensive understanding of contentious politics.

Blaydes, Lisa, James D. Fearon, and Mae MacDonald. "Understanding Intimate Partner Violence." Annual Review of Political Science 28 (2025).

Abstract: Violence against women occurs at high rates in societies across the world. The most common form is intimate partner violence, abuse perpetrated against a spouse or intimate relationship partner. We present a household bargaining model that seeks to clarify causal mechanisms and to identify key pathways by which economic, political, legal, and cultural factors external to households influence domestic abuse rates, gender equity within relationships, and rates of relationship dissolution. We relate key parameters to factors that differ across societies and over time, including economic opportunities for women, laws that criminalize domestic abuse, and social norms associated with gender equality. We review research associated with these topics to establish what we know and do not know about violence against women in households. While much of this literature is outside of the field of political science, we highlight opportunities for political scientists to contribute to our understanding of how and why domestic violence persists in the world today.

Clayton, Amanda, Boniface Dulani, Katrina Kosec, and Amanda Lea Robinson. "Representation increases women's influence in climate deliberations: Evidence from community‐managed forests in Malawi." American Journal of Political Science (2025).

Abstract: Women's inclusion is now the norm in global and local initiatives to combat climate change. We examine how women's representation affects climate deliberations using the case of community-managed forests in Malawi. We run a lab-in-the-field experiment randomly varying the gender composition of six-member groups asked to deliberate on policies to combat local overharvesting. We find that any given woman has relatively more influence in group deliberations when women make up a larger share of the group, a change driven by men's assessments of women's influence. Women's presence also shifts the content of deliberations toward prospective solutions for which women have socially recognized expertise (cooking and replanting). Despite these changes, women and men do not prefer different deforestation policies, and women's presence does not meaningfully affect group decisions. Our work demonstrates how women's presence shapes climate deliberations but also calls into question claims that women's inclusion will necessarily affect climate decisions.

Clayton, Amanda, Diana Z. O’Brien, and Jennifer M. Piscopo. “Electoral Gender Quotas and Democratic Legitimacy.” American Political Science Review (2025), 1–18.

Abstract: Gender quotas are used to elect most of the world’s legislatures. Still, critics contend that quotas are undemocratic, eroding institutional legitimacy. We examine whether quotas diminish citizens’ faith in political decisions and decision-making processes. Using survey experiments in 12 democracies with over 17,000 respondents, we compare the legitimacy-conferring effects of both quota-elected and non-quota elected local legislative councils relative to all-male councils. Citizens strongly prefer gender balance, even when it is achieved through quotas. Though we observe a quota penalty, wherein citizens prefer gender balance attained without a quota relative to quota-elected institutions, this penalty is often small and insignificant, especially in countries with higher-threshold quotas. Quota debates are thus better framed around the most relevant counterfactual: the comparison is not between women’s descriptive representation with and without quotas, but between men’s political dominance and women’s inclusion.

Cole, Wade M. “Abortion Policies in a Polarizing World Society, 1970 to 2020.” American Sociological Review (2025).

Abstract: This article examines how global contention over reproductive rights influenced national abortion polices over the past half-century. I glean four models of normative contestation in world society and its consequences for diffusion and institutionalization, arguing that a theory of polarization best accounts for developments in norms and policies on abortion. Fixed-effects regression analyses of up to 160 countries between 1970 and 2020 test the empirical implications of this argument. Several noteworthy findings emerge. First, country linkages to international nongovernmental organization (INGOs) predict abortion liberalization, but memberships in “illiberal” international organizations and alliances are associated with more restrictive abortion policies. Second, these relationships are conditioned by a shifting global context: in recent years, the association between illiberal affiliations and policy restrictions strengthened, while the liberalizing effect of INGOs weakened. And third, illiberal affiliations disrupt or “spoil” the effect of INGO linkages on policy expansions, illustrating the consequences of mutual engagement between rival transnational networks. Similar patterns characterize the effects of women’s and pro-family INGOs on abortion policies in the post–Cold War period. These findings point to growing polarization between liberal and illiberal forces in world society and suggest the incipient institutionalization of rival norms on abortion.

de Albuquerque, Amanda, Frederico Finan, Anubhav Jha, Laura Karpuska, and Francesco Trebbi. Decoupling Taste-Based versus Statistical Discrimination in Elections. No. w33859. National Bureau of Economic Research (2025).

Abstract: We present a methodology for decoupling taste-based versus statistical discrimination in political behavior. We combine a flexible empirical model of voting, featuring vertical and horizontal candidate differentiation in gender, ability, and policy positions, with a large-scale micro-targeted electoral experiment aimed at increasing female candidate vote shares. Our structural econometric approach allows to separately identify preference parameters driving taste-based discrimination and beliefs parameters driving statistical discrimination through expectations about ability and policy positions of female politicians. Our application to Brazilian municipal elections uncovers substantial levels of taste-based and statistical discrimination. Counterfactual political campaigns show promise in reducing both.

Fan, Yingjie, Jennifer Pan, and Tongtong Zhang. "Gender and Political Compliance Under Authoritarian Rule." Comparative Political Studies (2025).

Abstract: When autocrats do not impose explicit rules of behavior on their subjects, what does political compliance look like? Existing research suggests that such conditions generate uncertainty, leading risk-adverse individuals to self-censor in an effort to minimize the risk of punishment. In this paper, we find that women and men differ in how they express political compliance under conditions of uncertainty. Focusing on Confucius Institute teachers who are given broad objectives but no specific rules of political behavior, we use interviews, a global survey, and an experiment to show that women express compliance by increasing uncensored discussions to persuade host country students toward the Chinese regime’s point of view. In contrast, men comply by vociferously defending the party line and censoring further discussions. These gendered strategies of political compliance are rooted in the differing gender socialization experiences of men and women, who face divergent expectations on how they should interact with others.

Goyal, Tanushree. "Local political representation as a pathway to power: A natural experiment in India." American Journal of Political Science 69, no. 2 (2025): 516-530.

Abstract: What drives the career advancement of female politicians in opaque selection environments where party activists hold sway? I argue that women's higher presence in local politics not only improves party elite responsiveness to greater talent supply (top-down mechanism) but also expands women's capacity to organize grassroots activist networks to influence party-nomination decisions (bottom-up mechanism). Using the natural experiment of gender quotas in Delhi, which cause as-if-random variation in the number of local reserved seats within state constituencies, I estimate a novel effect of gender quotas. In state constituencies with women's higher presence in local politics, local female politicians are more likely to be promoted, and senior female politicians are more likely to get renominated. Qualitative evidence shows how women leverage grassroots networks and forge informal connections across party hierarchies. The findings emphasize the pivotal role of women's strategic political networks and grassroots organizing in shaping their political careers.

Gulzar, Saad, Durgesh Pathak, Sarah Thompson, and Aliz Tóth. “Can Party Elites Shape the Rank and File? Evidence from a Recruitment Campaign in India.” American Political Science Review 119, no. 2 (2025): 812–31.

Abstract: Recruiting a large number of ground workers is crucial for running effective modern election campaigns. It is unclear if party leaders can influence the quality and quantity of the unpaid rank-and-file workforce as they can with prized nominations for candidates. We analyze a field experiment conducted by an Indian party that randomized recruitment messages reaching 1% of a 13-million-person electorate to join its rank and file. Contrary to concerns that parties can only attract a few poor-quality volunteers, we show that elite efforts can shape the rank and file. In fact, specific strategies can increase the size, enhance the gender and ethnic diversity, and broaden the education and political skills of recruits. Strategies that signal gender inclusiveness have a lasting impact on some dimensions up to 3 years later. Taken together, this article provides the first causal evidence that rank-and-file recruitment is an opportunity for elites to influence long-term party development.

Heinze, Alyssa R., Rachel E. Brulé, and Simon Chauchard. "Who Actually Governs? Gender Inequality and Political Representation in Rural India." The Journal of Politics 87, no. 2 (2025): 818-822.

Abstract: Research on representative democracy often assumes that elected officials from disadvantaged and dominant groups have equal input into decision-making once in office. Drawing on an original micro-level survey in 320 Indian village councils, we leverage both reputational and behavioral measures to show that this assumption does not hold. Women elected via gender quotas do not equally participate in decision-making processes within village councils. We additionally show that these inequalities owe to both discrimination and selection mechanisms. Recognition of this underappreciated form of political inequality is imperative for scholars to accurately identify the strengths and limitations of descriptive representation. From a policy standpoint, this suggests that reforms aiming to increase the representation of members of traditionally excluded groups (quotas) may not be sufficient to enable individuals from long-excluded groups to play a central role in decision-making.

Kadam, Aditi, Ellen B. McCullough, Tamara J. McGavock, and Nicholas Magnan. "Who is asking and how? Effects of survey mode and enumerator gender on measuring women’s life experience." World Development 195 (2025): 107078.

Abstract: We explore the causal impact of survey design choices on measurement of outcomes about women’s experiences using standard questions that inform policy and research on women’s and girls’ empowerment. Among ultra-poor women in rural Ethiopia, we experimentally vary the survey mode (phone or in-person) and enumerator gender (male or female) for a survey module eliciting respondents’ beliefs about and experiences with physical safety, emotional well-being, and independence. We find that women report their experiences similarly to a female or male enumerator (for interviews conducted by phone) and they also report experiences similarly in person versus over the phone (for interviews conducted by a male enumerator). For the least empowered respondents, those interviewed by phone are significantly less likely than those interviewed in person to agree that domestic violence perpetrated by husbands against wives is justified under some conditions, suggesting that the privacy of a phone interview gives them an opportunity to state their objection. Our results suggest that phone surveys present a cost-effective means of collecting comparable sensitive data from women without altering respondent reporting, or with improvements possible in some contexts.

Koos, Carlo, and Richard Traunmüller. "The gendered costs of stigma: How experiences of conflict‐related sexual violence affect civic engement for women and men." American Journal of Political Science 69, no. 2 (2025): 763-778.

Abstract: A common understanding emphasizes the destructive effects of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) on social cohesion and community lifeing the agency of survivors, we present an alternative argument. Our theory predicts that survivors seek to counteract the stigma attached to CRSV by contributing to the community in the form of civic engagement. Drawing on three original surveys from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Liberia, and Sri Lanka and relying on list experiments to reduce underreporting bias, we find that survivors of CRSV indeed show increased levels of civic engagement. This civic effect is consistent across the three contexts and very likely causal. We also rule out an alternative mechanism based on posttraumatic growth and dispel concerns that increased civic engagement comes at the expense of decreased intergroup relations. However, looking at sex differences, our results are more sobering. While in line (2025)ur prediction, they do not support the optimistic notion that survivors' mobilization results in female empowerment and the closing of existing gender gaps in civic behavior. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of CRSV, the legacy of violent conflict, and the gendered nature of politics

Karekurve-Ramachandra, Varun and Alexander Lee. “Can Gender Quotas Improve Public Service Provision? Evidence From Indian Local Government.” Comparative Political Studies, 58(5) (2025): 924-962.

Abstract: What effect do gender quotas have on political responsiveness? We examine the effect of randomly imposed electoral quotas for women in Mumbai’s city council, using a wide variety of objective and subjective measures of constituency-level public service quality. Quotas are associated with differences in the distribution of legislator effort, with quota members focusing on public goods distribution, while non-quota members focus on individual goods, member perks, and identity issues. These differences in effort seem to influence institutional performance: perceived quality of local public goods is higher in constituencies with quota members, and citizen complaints are processed faster in areas with more quota members. We suggest that men’s more extensive engagement with extralegal and rhetorical forms of political action has led to men and women cultivating different styles of political representation.

Alessandro Nai, Chiara Valli, Jürgen Maier & Loes Aaldering. “Gendered Backlash Depends on the Context. Reassessing Negative Campaigning Sanctions Against Female Candidates via Large-Scale Comparative Data.” Political Communication, 42:3 (2025): 454-475.

Abstract: On paper, women politicians should be punished more than men when they go negative during election campaigns. Yet, empirical evidence in this sense is surprisingly scarce, and findings offer a muddled picture. In this article, we argue that existing research has, so far, neglected to consider a fundamental intervening factor: the role of the context, and specifically the level of descriptive representation of women in politics. Using novel large-scale data for 700+ candidates having competed in 150+ elections in 94 countries worldwide, we test – and confirm – the expectation that women are especially punished for negative campaigning in countries with low descriptive representation of women in politics. This pattern does not hold in more gender-equal contexts. Additional observational evidence from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) shows that this electoral punishment is likely due to voters expressing lower likability of women candidates (compared to men) when the former go negative in countries where women are less established in political leadership positions. We suggest that incon sistent results in previous studies are likely due to the lack of comparative focus.

Tambe, Elvis Bisong, and Johanna Jormfeldt. "Addressing the gender gap: Impact of institutions on women’s political participation in Africa." International Journal of Comparative Sociology 66, no. 2 (2025): 140-166.

Abstract: Women’s low political participation remains a problem in many parts of the globe. Previous research within the African context has examined the gender gap, focusing on individual-level factors. Still, the gender gap persists after controlling for the usual barriers (resource, attitudinal, social, and cultural). We complement prior studies by exploring the impact of an overlooked factor—institutions. We theorize that the gender gap in political participation in Africa depends on the specific institutional context and nature of the institutions themselves. Focusing on electoral systems, gender quotas, and their inclusive outcomes (increase in women’s numbers in national assemblies), we hypothesize that in countries with proportional (PR) electoral systems, gender quotas should encourage higher participation among women and yield small to no gender gap. Using five waves of Afrobarometer data covering 32 African countries, the multilevel regression results reveal nuanced effects of institutions on the gender gap in both electoral and non-electoral participation. First, compared with majoritarian systems, we find that PR electoral systems help erase the gender gap only for electoral participation (voting). In contrast, for non-electoral participation, PR electoral systems show no significant impact on reducing the gender gap. Second, we find no evidence to support the hypothesis that gender quotas reduce the gender gap in electoral and non-electoral participation. Third, where women’s representation in legislatures exceeds 20 percent, there is a reversal of the gender gap for voting. However, for non-electoral activity, improving women’s presence in national legislatures proves more effective in reversing the gender gap only for those belonging to a political party. For other activities, such as joining others to raise issues, protest actions, and attend community meetings, the gender gap persists but diminishes, with women holding 20–45 percent of seats.

Teele, Dawn Langan. "Women's Suffrage: Causes and Consequences." Annual Review of Political Science 28, no. 1 (2025): 477-497.

Abstract: From 2000 to 2020, more than 20 countries marked a century of women's suffrage. These anniversaries occurred alongside a period of rich theoretical innovation in the democratization literature, producing a decade of research on the causes and consequences of women's suffrage. This body of research pushes against the narrative that suffrage happened automatically with modernization and the claims that early women voters were apathetic and conservative and did not get what they wanted out of politics. New scholarship reveals how political competition and suffragists’ strategies were key components of suffrage reform and how women, who often cast the largest number of votes in any given context, could shift the balance toward left parties if they were highly mobilized in cities. Finally, a growing body of scholarship has shown how suffrage led to expansions of early welfare state policies. Future work should examine these dynamics in suffrage's second wave and outside of the global North.

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