| What is the impact of gender equality on democracy? is the central research question of this study. By comparing different countries in the world, the analysis makes evident the relative contribution of gender equality to democracy in its two dimensions: egalitarian values (subjective) and women's empowerment (objective). Democracy in the world is highly correlated with economic development, social structure, and also with the presence of women in decision-making positions.; The subjective dimension of gender equality uses the World Values Survey. The analysis trace differences and changes of egalitarian values over time and finds out whether egalitarian attitudes vary around the world. The objective aspect of gender equality uses measurements from United Nations. It documents how women's empowerment varies across societies of different historical traditions and economic levels, seeking for factors that account for such variation.; The main findings of this work are, first, that women's empowerment is crucial for democracy. There is not only a strong correlation between women's empowerment and democracy, but also the multiple regression analysis shows that women's empowerment has a positive and significant impact on the societies' levels of democracy. Secondly, egalitarian values proved to be critical to women's advancement but, however, did not have a direct impact on democracy. If women are to break the glass ceiling in order to climb up the ladder, first there must be a widespread belief on equality among the sexes.; Gender equality is linked with democracy. Today, a regime that does not grant gender equality does not qualify as democracy. Equal treatment for all people, regardless of race, gender or religion has become an essential attribute of democracy. The evidence makes clear that gender equality matters. Whereas objective gender equality has a direct influence on democracy levels, subjective gender equality has a positive effect on women's advancement. While women's empowerment is not the most important factor for democracy, neither its cause, the presence of women in top positions is clearly linked to democracy, even when controlling for other socio-economic factors. The literature on democracy and democratization seems to have overlooked in the past this important relationship. |
