Abstract

From December 2001, to January 31, 2011, the national average for women serving in the lower chambers of national parliaments in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 12.4 percent to 19.3 percent. The implementation of gender quotas provides the most compelling explanation for this seven percent average increase in the share of females in sub-Saharan African parliaments within a decade. Using updated data, I refine and combine political, socioeconomic and cultural variables developed and used in prior works to determine factors that, in addition to gender quotas, are significant in explaining the increased percentage of women serving in the national parliaments of 46 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. My findings show that the type of quota, the size of the legislature, the electoral system, the timing of universal female suffrage, the share of women in the paid labor force, religion (Catholicism), and of course, the adoption of quotas, significantly affects the percentage of women serving in the lower chambers of parliaments of sub-Saharan Africa