Liberal democracies tend to have higher women's political participation
Comparing Women's Political Participation Index with Key features of liberal democracy, gaps filled across 173 countries, 1948–2025.
- Rank correlation
- +0.57
- Holding size constant
- +0.50
- Countries compared
- 173
- Period
- 1948–2025
What might link these
Liberal democracies often prioritize gender equality in institutions, which may boost women's political roles. However, wealthier nations (linked to both democracy and participation) could inflate this link.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. Correlation does not imply causation, and unmeasured factors like cultural norms may drive both indicators.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.