When female politicians are elected to the national legislature, they drive more spending on priorities like education and healthcare, a new report has found.
Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder used machine learning to discover underlying relationships between women's numeric representation in political office and government spending. They analyzed data from 149 countries between the years 2000 and 2016.
They found that the amount of women in national politics has a nonlinear effect on government spending. When women make up 15 to 35 percent of the legislature, spending on healthcare increases from 6.4 percent of gross domestic product to over 6.7 percent. However, beyond the 35 percent mark, spending does not increase substantially. This suggests a critical mass interval, in which the effect of women's representation dissipates after a certain threshold has been reached.
They also found that women's representation in politics reduced defense spending and increased education spending up to a point. When women make up less than 20 percent of the legislature, spending on education lies at below 4.4 percent GDP, but jumps to over 5 percent when women make up 38 percent of the legislature.
The research suggests female representation can drive spending in key areas, although the relationship between the two is nuanced and complicated.