Kin-based institutions and women’s political empowerment

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between kin-based institutions and women’s political empowerment in the regions of Spain, France, and Italy. The results show that the rate of cousin marriage during the 20th century is a strong predictor of modern-day female political representation in the regions of these three countries. Regions characterized by a higher prevalence of cousin marriage in the past century tend to have a lower proportion of women in politics today. This finding holds after controlling for country fixed effects and different variables that may be correlated with both consanguinity and women’s political empowerment. The results remain robust when employing an instrumental variable approach that exploits regional variation in the degree of historical exposure to the marriage laws of the medieval Catholic Church. Furthermore, the findings of the paper show that the effect of cousin marriage on women’s political empowerment partially operates through its impact on corruption and economic development. Additionally, I also present evidence supporting the existence of a cultural transmission channel linking consanguineous marriage in the 20th century with contemporary attitudes about the role of women in society and their participation in politics.