The effect of electing female candidates on attitudes toward intimate partner violence

What can be done to encourage people to condemn intimate partner violence? Looking at Indonesia, I combine electoral data with a large-scale health survey and find that the narrow victory of a female candidate—as opposed to a male candidate—in local council elections leads to a decrease in the share of female constituents who agree that a husband is justified in assaulting his wife. I observe similar results for male constituents, although some estimates are not statistically significant. These results improve our understanding of the role of descriptive representation as a cause, rather than simply a consequence, of changing attitudes.