Female Empowerment as a Core Driver of Democratic Development: A Dynamic Panel Model from 1980 to 2005

SummaryWe investigated the causal effects of female empowerment (female educational attainment, female labor force participation, and total fertility rates) on democratic development for 97 countries from 1980 to 2005. Using Polity IV as an indicator of levels of democracy, our results show that female empowerment was strongly associated with democratic development over this period. The effect of female education increased with lags of 5 and 10 years, suggesting that democracy is more likely to occur in nations with a history of educating girls and a longer experience of the social and economic conditions that have occurred because of this investment.