Fighting Violence Against Women: the Role of Female Political Representation

We investigate the effect of women’s political leadership in local government on homicide and violence against women. Using a regression discontinuity design we compare Brazilian municipalities where a female candidate barely won to those where a female candidate barely lost mayoral elections. Having a female mayor reduces intentional homicide rate of women by 20% and violence (physical, psychological, sexual) by 40%. These results are not due to pre-existing municipalities characteristics or other observable mayor characteristics. Overall, our findings provide compelling evidence that women holding office are effective in addressing violence against women