Relationship between Gender of Mayors and Quality of Public Policy for Natural Disaster Prevention

Abstract

The increasing frequency of extreme climatic events places an ever larger number of people at risks from floods, droughts and other such events. At the same time, there is growing evidence from national and international studies that the presence of women in public policy tends to bring larger social benefits. This study looks at the intersection of these two phenomena and by using a statistical linear regression model analyzes 453 municipalities regarding the relationship between the number of people affected by environmental disasters and the presence of women as mayor. The study concludes that there is partial statistical evidence that the presence of women in public office is associated to smaller numbers of people affected by natural disasters.