Do Gender Quotas Change Politics? Evidence from the Namibian Parliament

Gender quotas have been one of the most popular legislative reforms of the 21st Century. In Namibia, the ruling party abruptly adopted a gender parity quota, increasing women’s representation by 16 percentage points in one electoral cycle and dramatically changing the chamber’s composition. Using complete parliamentary transcripts from 2004 to 2023, we examine how this leap in women’s presence changed both the tone and substance of legislative debates.