Female suffrage and fertility decline: evidence from Swiss Cantons

This paper examines the causal impact of female political emancipation on fertility in Switzerland during the 1970s and 1980s, exploiting the staggered introduction of women's suffrage across cantons. Using a synthetic difference-in-differences (SDID) approach (Arkhangelsky et al., 2021), I estimate the counterfactual fertility trajectories that would have prevailed in the absence of suffrage reforms. The results show a significant decline in fertility rates following female enfranchisement. Cantons that granted women the right to vote experienced an average fertility reduction of 0.42 total fertility rate relative to their synthetic counterparts in the next 20 years after the reform. The findings suggest that female political empowerment reshaped demographic behavior, potentially accelerating Switzerland's demographic transition.