Contemporaneous Female Political Participation

Description of Variables in Dataset

The database includes 18 variables, which are explained below.

• CTR_N Country Name
• CTR_C A numeric country code, varies between 1-34. Order is assigned alphabetically
• ADMIN_L The administrative level at which the election took place
• ADMIN_TYP_ENG The type of administrative division, in English. Examples include: Municipal councils, Town councils, Commune, etc
• ADMIN_LVL_N The name of the administrative unit
• LEGIS_Q A binary (1=YES, 0=NO) variable, indicating whether legislated quotas for women are in place
• YEAR_Q The year in which the legislated quotas was instituted
• RES_SEAT A binary (1=YES, 0=NO) variable that indicates whether the individual was elected as part of a reserved seat allocation (YES), or if they were elected in open elections (NO).
• ELEC_Y Year in which the election took place
• ELEC_M Month in which the election took place
• CAN_N_S The name and surname of the winning candidate
• DIRECT_ELEC A binary (1=YES, 0=NO) variable that indicates if the candidate was elected directly (YES) or indirectly (NO). This variable provides an indication of whether the winning candidate was directly elected, such as in, for example, a FPTP election system, or indirectly elected, for example, by a List PR allocation.
• UNCONTEST_S A binary (1=YES, 0=NO) variable which indicates whether the seat was contested by more than one individual or political party. 1 (YES) indicates that the seat was uncontested and 0 (NO) indicates that the seat was contested by more than one political party or individuals.

• ELEC_CODE Specifies the type of election system that was used. Numbers 1-6 are used to represent the different types of election systems as follows:

  1. FPTP First Past The Post is the simplest form of plurality/majority electoral system. The winning candidate is the one who gains more votes than any other candidate, even if this is not an absolute majority of valid votes. The system uses single member districts and the voters vote for candidates rather than political parties.
  2. BV Block Vote is a plurality/majority system used in multi-member districts. Electors have as many votes as there are candidates to be elected. The candidates with the highest vote totals win the seats. Usually voters vote for candidates rather than parties and in most systems may use as many, or as few, of their votes as they wish.
  3. LIST PR Under a List Proportional Representation (List PR) system each party or grouping presents a list of candidates for a multi-member electoral district, the voters vote for a party, and parties receive seats in proportion to their overall share of the vote. In some (closed list) systems the winning candidates are taken from the lists in order of their position on the lists. If the lists are ‘open’ or ‘free’ the voters can influence the order of the candidates by marking individual preferences.
  4. MMP Mixed Member Proportional is a mixed system in which the choices expressed by the voters are used to elect representatives through two different systems–one List PR system and (usually) one plurality/majority system–where the List PR system compensates for the disproportionality in the results from the plurality/majority system.
  5. PS A Parallel System is a mixed system in which the choices expressed by the voters are used to elect representatives through two different systems–one List PR system and (usually) one plurality/majority system–but where no account is taken of the seats allocated under the first system in calculating the results in the second system.
  6. LIST PR d’Hondt The d’Hondt method employs an alternative mathematical means for calculating number of seats in a PR system
• FEMALE Specifies the gender of the winning candidate, with 1 = FEMALE, 0 = MALE and X = GENDER IS UNKNOWN
• ADMIN_SEAT_T The total number of seats that are allocated in the administrative region
• ADMIN_SEAT_F The total number of seats held by females in the administrative region

• PC_WMN_SEAT The percentage of seats held by women in the administrative region

Electoral Coverage

• Angola Municipal administrators election, August 2012
• Benin Commune election, April 2015
• Botswana Local government council election, October 2014
• Burkina Faso Commune election, June 2016
• Burundi Town council election, May 2010
• Cape Verde Municipal assembly election, July 2012
• Cape Verde Municipal chamber election, July 2012
• Comoros Municipal council election, February 2015
• Republic of the Congo Department elections, September 2014
• Ghana District assembly election, September 2015
• Kenya County assembly election, March 2013
• Lesotho Community council election, April 2005
• Lesotho Community council election, October 2011
• Malawi District council election, May 2014
• Mauritius Municipal council election, December 2012
• Mauritius Municipal council election, June 2015
• Mauritius Village council election, December 2012
• Mozambique Municipal election, August 2013
• Namibia Municipal council election, November 2015
• Namibia Regional council election, November 2015
• Nigeria State house of assembly election, April 2011
• Sierra Leone District election, November 2012
• South Africa District council election, May 2011
• South Africa Local municipal election, May 2011
• South Africa Provincial legislature election, May 2014
• Swaziland Tinkundla (village) election, March 2013
• Swaziland Town council election, February 2012
• Zambia Local council election, September 2011
• Zimbabwe Municipal election, March 2008
• Zimbabwe Municipal election, July 2013

Notes on Data Processing