Abstract
Many studies have shown that gender equality and women’s political representation lead to better health outcomes, including a lower rate of maternal mortality. Nevertheless, we still lack a clear understanding of the causal mechanism linking gender equality and politics to maternal health. Besides, most of the studies on this subject suffer from a whole nation bias as they focus on the national level. Using a structural equation model (SEM) analysis, this article examines the effect of gender equality and women’s political representation on disparities in maternal mortality across regions in Indonesia. Compared to districts with a lower level of gender equality, the results reveal that districts with a higher level of gender equality were more likely to have a lower rate of maternal mortality. The effect was mediated by increases in the utilization of maternal health care services made possible by higher rates of gender equality. However, our findings show no strong evidence in support of women’s political representation effects on reducing maternal mortality. Thus, the findings of this study suggest the primacy of gender equality in improving maternal health.
