Bidrar en ökad kvinnlig representation i nationella parlament till striktare miljölagar? En kvantitativ studie om sambandet mellan folkvalda kvinnors representation och staters miljöprestanda

Abstract

The aim of this study is to explore potential gender relationships within the environmental field by investigating if there is any correlation between increased female presence in national legislatures and states' environmental performance. This is examined by looking into how well states protect their citizens from environmental health risks in the form of environmental legislations. Previous research shows that women are more likely to support environmental legislations than men, which forms the basis for the thesis's hypothesis. I argue, with inspiration from “The fairer sex theory”, that there should exist a positive relationship between increased female representation in national legislatures and states' environmental performance. However, the results show that the explanatory power of women’s representation almost completely disappeared when alternative explanatory factors were controlled for, even though the main relationship remains positive. Although this suggests that other factors better explain this relationship, future research on this topic should still include women's representation as a variable, as it may still have an effect on the relationship. In fact, a positive relationship did exist between women decision-makers and states' environmental performance when testing alternative measures of the independent variable. Mapping the area and continuing to investigate the relationship is therefore a task for future studies.