How gender affects Mass and Elite Policy Priorities in Namibia: Examination of SWAPO's zebra gender quotas

We investigate the sharp implementation of Namibia’s 50-percent female quota within the dominant SWAPO party's zebra system, which mandated alternation between male and female candidates on electoral lists. This institutional feature provides quasi-random variation that we use to estimate the causal effect of female representation on policy outcomes. We analyze the legislative behavior of marginal male and female candidates to identify gendered differences in policy priorities. We then compare female representatives to the broader Namibian public to assess whether female leaders have systematically different policy preferences than from women in the electorate, or if they are representative of their gender group.