Foreign aid, democracy, and gender quota laws

Why do so many developing countries have gender quota policies? This article argues that foreign aid programmes influence developing countries to adopt policies aimed at fulfilling international norms regarding gender equality. This relationship is driven by two causal mechanisms. On the one hand, countries may use gender quotas as a signal to improve their standing in the international hierarchy, possibly as an end unto itself, but more likely as a means towards ensuring future aid flows. On the other, countries may adopt gender quotas as a result of successful foreign aid interventions specifically designed to promote women’s empowerment. I test these two causal mechanisms using data on foreign aid commitments to 173 non-OECD countries from 1974 to 2012. The results suggest that while programmes targeting women’s empowerment may have some influence on quota adoption, developing countries dependent on United States foreign aid are also likely to use gender quotas as signalling devices rather than as a result of ongoing liberalization efforts.

为何诸多发展中国家会推行性别配额政策？本文提出，对外援助项目会促使发展中国家采纳旨在落实性别平等相关国际规范的政策。这一关联由两类因果机制驱动。其一，国家可将性别配额作为提升自身在国际等级体系中地位的信号，此举虽可能将性别配额本身作为最终目标，但更大概率是为了保障未来的援助流入。其二，国家采纳性别配额，或许是因为旨在推动妇女赋权的对外援助干预举措取得了成功。本文基于1974年至2012年间针对173个非经合组织（OECD）国家的对外援助承诺数据，对上述两类因果机制进行了实证检验。研究结果表明，尽管以妇女赋权为目标的援助项目或许会对配额政策的采纳产生一定影响，但依赖美国对外援助的发展中国家，更有可能将性别配额作为信号工具，而非持续自由化举措的成果。