Does women's political empowerment promote improved access to safe drinking water in developing countries?

The relationship between women’s political empowerment and access to safe drinking water remains underexplored, particularly in the context of developing countries. Moreover, existing literature often overlooks the disparities in water access levels across these countries, thereby limiting a comprehensive understanding of this relationship. Drawing on a panel of 70 developing countries over the period 2000–2022, this study employs the system GMM approach to analyse this dynamic. The results reveal that women’s political empowerment has a positive effect on access to safe drinking water. However, using quantile regression, the findings indicate that this effect varies across contexts: it is positive in countries where women hold substantial political power, but may turn negative in those where access to water is already widely ensured. By highlighting this heterogeneity, the study offers a more nuanced understanding of the political role of women and underscores the importance of accounting for inequalities in water access in empirical analysis.