Seeing women govern encourages support for women in politics – with no apparent backlash among men

After the main Namibian party started alternating candidates between men and women, female representation in the National Assembly nearly doubled.

By: Vladimir Chlouba, University of Richmond, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: April 16, 2026

Words: 898

Last Updated: 3 months, 2 weeks ago

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By Vladimir Chlouba, University of Richmond

Quotas designed to bring gender parity to parliaments have an overall positive impact on support for female political leadership – especially after women members of parliament take office. Furthermore, there is no evidence of a backlash among men.

That’s what I found in a study published in October 2025 looking at the impact of gender-parity quotas in Namibia, in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2013, Namibia’s dominant political party, the South …

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