Political empowerment of women and Human Development Index in the States of Mexico

Abstract

Based on the critical mass theory, this article analyzes the effect of political empowerment of women in legislatures and mayoralties of the federal states of Mexico over the Sub-national Human Development Index [SHDI]. Using a balanced panel data composed by 352 observations during the 2010-2020 period, the results show that the critical mass of 30% of women in State legislatures increases health and education sub-indexes. Similarly, the critical mass of 20% of women as majors has a favorable impact on the SHDI and their standard of living and education components. These results highlight that political empowerment of women enhance economic and social development in the context of an emerging country and make a call to legislators in gender issues.