Abstract

Women’s political representation in post-conflict states has been widely promoted as a mechanism for promoting gender equality and enhancing social policy outcomes, yet empirical evidence on its substantive effects remains limited. This study quantitatively examined the relationship between female legislative representation and policy outcomes in 24 post-conflict states over a five-year period, using a cross-national dataset of 120 country-year observations. Drawing on Critical Mass Theory and Feminist Institutionalism, the study constructed a composite Policy Outcome Index encompassing health expenditure, education enrollment, and gender-based violence legislation. Multiple regression analyses with interaction terms were employed to assess the moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between women’s representation and policy outcomes. The results indicated that higher female representation was significantly associated with improved policy outcomes (β = 0.0043, p < 0.001), and that institutional quality amplified this effect (interaction β = 0.0019, p = 0.008). Sector-specific analyses revealed the strongest effects in gender-based violence legislation and female education enrollment. The findings suggest that while numerical representation of women is important, its translation into substantive policy benefits depends on institutional strength, governance capacity, and supportive political structures. The study concluded that post-conflict reconstruction strategies should integrate gender quotas, institutional reforms, and capacity-building initiatives to ensure that women’s inclusion produces tangible social and developmental gains.