This article tests the hypothesis that gender quotas foster women’s overall political engagement in seventeen Latin American countries. After elaborating a theoretical framework on how affirmative action policies to legislative bodies might be beneficial to constituents of the targeted group, the author shows that there is no general proof of attitudinal or behavioural effects. The analysis represents an initial attempt to theorize and use large-scale data to examine the more long-term consequences of quota policies on female constituents’ political involvement.