David Watson’s research while affiliated with Sul Ross State University and other places

Although the effects of women’s representation have received significant attention, existing research often emphasizes the impact of women’s representation on issues directly related to women. Researchers have devoted less attention to the influence of women legislators on policies that are not clearly related to gender. We argue that this gap in the literature is noteworthy for capital punishment policies, because researchers have frequently identified a gender gap in public attitudes toward the death penalty. Through an analysis of capital punishment laws in 125 countries, this study finds that women’s legislative representation is significantly correlated with the abolition of capital punishment.

A growing body of literature focuses on the attitudes produced by women's representation. One area of particular interest is the effect of women's representation on perceptions of corruption in government. Multiple scholars have found that citizens view women in government as more trustworthy and less corrupt. Others have suggested that the link between gender and corruption is spurious or dependent upon regime characteristics. Additionally, many studies of women's effect on corruption were published prior to the widespread adoption of gender quotas, when levels of women's representation were considerably lower. We argue that the relationship between women and perceptions of corruption can be better understood by applying an integrated model of representation, which explores the effects of formal, descriptive, and substantive representation on perceptions of corruption. Using a time-series analysis of 140 countries worldwide from 1998–2011, this study finds that women's descriptive and substantive representation are correlated with lower perceptions of corruption. However, gender quotas are correlated with higher perceptions of corruption among political elites.David Watson is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Sul Ross State University, Alpine, TX: dwatson@sulross.edu Amy Moreland is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Sul Ross State University, Alpine, TX: amoreland@sulross.edu