Women's political participation and disease prevention: Evidence from access to water and sanitation services

Unsafe water and sanitation remain notable conduits in spreading pathogens and have enormous health implications. It is argued that women are disproportionately affected by the consequences thereof. It is also believed that women who hold political positions tend to prioritize bills and issues that impact the accessibility of public goods and resources. Considering this, we examine the effect of women's political participation, measured as the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments, on access to water and sanitation services using a panel of 47 Sub-Saharan African countries from 2000 to 2022. The analyses revealed that women's political participation is generally positively associated with access to water and sanitation services. Furthermore, women's political participation has a significantly positive effect on rural and urban populations' access to sanitation services. The impact for the rural population was however found to outweigh that of the urban population. We further show that women's political participation has a U-shaped relationship with access to water and sanitation services, where at higher levels of participation, these resources increase. These results are robust across different econometric techniques. The findings underscore the importance of women's political participation in access to water and, sanitation, and disease prevention.