The effects of female descriptive representation and quotas on public governance outcome

The growth of female representation in politics has been enabled by increased employment of seat quotas in national parliaments around the world, visibility and influence of women is the highest ever in the modern era. This, in and of itself, is a indicator of success, however a probe beyond the headcount analysis offered by the descriptive representation construct quizzed whether women representation enabled by quotas contribute to better or more effective governance outcomes and its relational effect on female participation in the civil service. The findings suggest that female participation in politics and the civil service is positively associated with government effectiveness and positively impacts the proportion of women taking up positions in the civil service. Quotas impact governance outcome negatively and the proportion of seats held by women displays evidence of diminishing returns to governance outcomes suggesting there can be quota satiation.