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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

legislating women, women in parliament, trafficking, women

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science

Abstract

Pervasive, complex, and often little-­‐understood, trafficking of women is a worldwide epidemic. Although many acknowledge the problem that trafficking of women, hereafter known simply as trafficking, is, the large dark numbers associated with it make trafficking hard to fully track. Many studies have previously focused on trafficking victims and their experiences with the intent of understanding what demographic factors influence the likelihood of someone becoming a trafficking victim. However, there is little to no research on the macro causes of trafficking. This paper will focus on those macro causes, which are the percentage of women in parliament and women’s political rights. This paper argues that as women’s political rights increase, the prevalence of trafficking decreases. This paper also argues that this is a greater contributing factor to trafficking prevalence than GDP per capita. This is significant because better wages and economic opportunities are often cited as common reasons a woman is lured into trafficking.

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