Women In Cabinet Research Articles

The only way is up: proportions and portfolios for women in cabinet in Malaysia, 2008–2023

ABSTRACT The inclusion of women ministers in cabinet is vital in redistributing political power and increasing participation. However, increasing the number of women ministers is insufficient; the type of portfolios also matters. In Malaysia, following the 14th general election, the number of women ministers almost doubled; this increase survived government turn-overs between 2020–2022, and the 15th general election. Using cabinet composition and budget data, and a customised typology of portfolio salience, this paper analyses women’s cabinet representation between 2008–2023, finding significant improvements after the 15th general election, and identifying imperatives for cabinet formation if participation is to be increased.

Power in the Post-Civil War Period: The Effect of Armed Conflict and Gender Quotas on Women in Political Leadership Positions

Abstract While research has shown that civil wars often significantly increase women's representation in politics, we know little about the long-term effect on women holding political leadership positions in post-civil war countries. We develop a new theoretical approach to explain how quotas affect women's long-term representation in post-civil war governments. We observe a higher share of women in cabinets after the end of civil wars. We argue that the interaction of civil wars and gender quotas that provide a legal framework for a certain share of women in political office makes it especially likely that women can retain long-term political power. In contrast, the effect on women's leadership over time is smaller in post-civil war countries without a quota. Utilizing a novel data set of female executive-branch leaders in sub-Saharan African countries from 2001 to 2018, we empirically test whether women in post-civil war countries have managed to gain a long-term hold on the progress they made in representation. Our findings show that for cabinet positions, the interplay of gender quota and civil war explains female political leaders’ longevity in post-civil war countries. This research has implications for understanding post-civil war situations and the conditions under which women retain political power.

The Effects of Women's Descriptive Representation on Government Behavior

Does the representation of women in cabinet and party leadership positions affect whether governments are more or less likely to fulfill the policy promises they make during election campaigns? This research note studies the effects of women's descriptive representation in cabinet and party leadership on policymaking by analyzing the pledge fulfillment of parties in 10 European countries, the United States, and Canada. The empirical analysis suggests that governing parties are more likely to fulfill their election promises when levels of women's representation are higher. The results have implications for our understanding of the descriptive and substantive representation of women, as well as for party competition and policymaking more broadly.

Women in Australian Politics: Maintaining the Rage against the Political Machine

Women in Australian Politics: Maintaining the Rage against the Political Machine

Corruption and women in cabinets: Informal barriers to recruitment in the executive

Research on corruption and women in politics has mainly focused on legislatures, generally finding that corruption decreases the election of women. This article turns the spotlight to the executive branch—an arena where selection is less transparent than recruitment to legislative seats—and examines if corruption decrease the share of ministers who are women. Drawing on feminist institutionalist theories, we posit that in an environment of high political corruption, (male) elites involved in cabinet formation will tend to appoint ministers whom they can trust with secretive tasks. In systems with corrupt networks, relative newcomers, such as women, should face obstacles to career advancement. The article tests this reasoning empirically on a global sample of countries across time. Using a new indicator measuring corruption in executive bodies, we find support for our argument; corruption tends to hinder women's presence in cabinets, albeit only in democracies and not autocracies.

Women, Peace and Security in the SADC Region

The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is a key part of the international, continental and regional programme for attaining sustainable and durable peace. Conflict and post-conflict situations have a different impact on women, men, boys and girls. During conflicts, women and children are more vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation, displacement, a change to household relations and poverty. There have been concerted efforts to identify and address the impact of conflict on women and children and to provide for more responsive, representative and inclusive peace and security structures and processes. SADC countries have made great strides in enacting gender sensitive legislations, representation of women in cabinet, parliament, local government, and security sector institutions. Women have not adequately been represented in mediation and peace-building efforts and most peace agreements lack gender sensitivity. Peace agreements do not include reference to specific needs or interests of women.

Women in cabinets

There is still relatively little research on what factors explain the share of women in cabinets across countries and time. Focusing on party ideology, we advance this budding research. First, we examine if heads of government from left-leaning and/or liberal parties tend to select a larger proportion female cabinet members than those from conservative parties. Second, we evaluate whether a switch toward a left-leaning or liberal government benefits women’s cabinet presence. We test both propositions empirically with a data set covering mainly Western and industrialized countries after 1968. Our statistical analysis only find lukewarm support for the first proposition, that is, left-wing parties are no longer more likely to nominate women to cabinet posts than other party families, particularly liberal parties. Rather, what we do find is that a change in government, regardless of whether the new formateur is left-wing, liberal, or conservative, benefits the nomination of women to cabinet posts.

Presidentas Rise: Consequences for Women in Cabinets?

AbstractSince 1999, women have democratically won the presidency eight times in Latin America and have named hundreds of ministers. This study argues that under certain conditions,presidentasare more likely than male presidents to improve women's cabinet representation. Two mechanisms,presidentamandates and gendered networks, appear to drive the relationship. Furthermore, because the pool of ministerial candidates is shallower for women than for men,presidentasare most likely to advance women's representation in cabinets at the beginning of their term and for “feminine” ministries. A case study of Michelle Bachelet's 2006 ministerial appointments reveals initial evidence for the argument. Empirical implications are then tested with an original dataset of 1,908 ministers of all democratically elected Latin American presidents since 1999. Model results are consistent with the theory thatpresidentasare most likely to “make a difference” when they are least constrained by the supply of female ministerial candidates.

The Impact of Female Cabinet Ministers on a Female-Friendly Labor Environment

The literature indicates that the representation of women in legislatures is positively associated with the passage of female-friendly social policy (e.g., child care or family leave). However, there is little corresponding research concerning the effects of women in cabinet on female-friendly social policy. I argue that this gap must be addressed, because most of the advanced industrial democracies are parliamentary democracies in which policies typically originate at the cabinet level, and governments typically enjoy substantial control over the legislative process. Thus, women in cabinet positions should be ideally placed to promote female-friendly policies; indeed, they are likely to be in a better position to promote these policies than their legislative counterparts. The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of female cabinet ministers in the adoption of female-friendly policies, thus addressing this gap in the gender and politics literature. It should be noted that the influence of female officeholders on female-friendly policy may differ by policy. To assess female officeholders’ effect on female friendly policy in general, I create an index measure using 17 variables related to these policy areas. Using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression, I find that female ministers have a significant effect on the adoption of policies that help to create a more female-friendly working environment.

Still a ‘Male Business’? Explaining Women’s Presence in Executive Office

This article aims to account for cross-national and over-time variation in women’s participation in cabinets. Specifically, it focuses on some key political factors which have not been tested yet, such as the effectiveness of party gender quotas. Previous literature has mainly centred on structural variables, such as the degree of democratisation and economic development. Using an original longitudinal cross-sectional sample of 23 advanced industrial democracies, this article provides new evidence that some important political factors should be considered. It finds that countries with a specialist system have a higher percentage of women in cabinet than generalist systems, left-wing parties in government appoint more women, women are more likely to receive a ministerial post when the governing party has adopted gender quotas, and an increasing number of women in parliament boosts women in cabinet. Furthermore, the article shows that these political variables perform differently through time, and that political factors have become more relevant in recent decades.

Women in cabinet and public health spending: evidence across countries

This article studies the effect of women’s cabinet representation on public health policy outcomes. Based on a large sample of countries in the year 2000, the analysis shows that an increase in the share of women in cabinet is associated with an increase in public health spending. There is also an indication of a decrease in the gender gap in life expectancies in places with higher cabinet representation of women. The endogeneity of women’s cabinet representation is accounted for by using the share of daughters that a national leader parents as an instrument.

“Her Excellency”: An Exploratory Overview of Women Cabinet Ministers in Africa

The number of women cabinet ministers in several African countries has increased recently while remaining small in others. In this exploratory overview, we investigate women’s growing presence in cabinets across sub-Saharan Africa, providing a recent ranking for women’s cabinet representation. We attempt to determine why some countries have more women ministers than others, comparing generalist versus specialist appointments and normative influences on governments. Further, we seek to determine the impact of more women ministers by investigating substantive and symbolic representation effects. We find that specialist recruitment appears to have created more ministerial opportunities for women than generalist; regional and international norms have contributed to increasing the number of women cabinet ministers in some countries; and there is evidence of substantive and symbolic representation effects of more women in cabinets in some African countries. Finally, we consider areas for future research around women cabinet ministers in Africa.

David Cameron's ‘Problem’ with Women: Representing Women in the Coalition Government

Prior to the election in 2010 David Cameron pledged that his first cabinet would comprise one‐third women and would be the most family friendly ever. Since forming the Coalition Government, he appears to have a ‘problem’ with women. We argue that this problem stems from: the weak representation of women in cabinet and across government; the diminishing resources available to government actors to support gender equality policy; and women's exclusion from the key Coalition networks, both formal and informal, that determine government policy.

Women Cabinet Ministers and Female‐Friendly Social Policy

AbstractA growing literature indicates that the representation of women in legislatures is positively associated with the passage of female‐friendly social policy. However, there is little corresponding research concerning the effect of women in cabinet on female‐friendly social policy. Yet, almost all advanced industrial democracies are parliamentary democracies, where policies typically originate within the cabinet and governments typically enjoy substantial control over the legislative process. Thus, to the extent that women promote female‐friendly policy, women in cabinet positions should be ideally placed to do so, and indeed, possibly be more influential than women in legislatures. We find significant support for this argument in analyses of state guaranteed leave entitlement, in eighteen parliamentary democracies from 1980‐2003.

Women, Political Leadership and Substantive Representation: the Case of New Zealand

The descriptive representation of women in cabinet is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve women-friendly policy outcomes. Rather, substantive representation of women by women political leaders also requires women’s political activism. In this article, I explore the idea that institutionalised separate spaces are important sites of labour women’s activism which promote and sustain women’s policy leadership and the substantive representation of women. Through an examination of the New Zealand Labour Women’s Council and four Labour women ministers who have used this space to pursue positions of influence and implement women-friendly policies, it becomes evident that it is not always possible for women leaders to publicly represent a ‘feminist’ claim, but this does not diminish their attempts at substantive representation. Rather, I suggest that an active and influential feminist reference group is a necessary supplement to women’s executive presence. FEMINIST research on the representation of women has burgeoned in recent years, with considerable attention given to the links between the descriptive and the substantive. Many of these analyses focus on women’s preferences and performances as legislators, and the constraints and opportunities they face in seeking to advance ‘women friendly’ positions. Gendering legislatures is a desirable end in itself, but is also seen to be a means by which ‘women’s interests’ can become more visibly represented. While there is a body of evidence to suggest this may occur, more tenuous is the causal link between the numbers of women elected and the substantive representation of women. 1 Yet, we have only recently reached a time where women’s place in parliament has become ‘accepted’ or ‘normal’, meaning it is too soon to abandon the analysis of the performance of women politicians. In addition, the focus of research to date has tended to be on women as legislators, rather than members of the executive. 2 This is not surprising. It takes time for any politician, male or female, to build a political career to the point where they have the capacity to influence directly the government’s policy agenda, that is, to become part of the

Descriptive Representation and Policymaking Authority: Evidence from Women in Cabinets and Bureaucracies

We examine the forces for the descriptive representation of women in ministerial and subministerial positions. We offer a unified model in which portfolio allocation makes political forces for descriptive representation more important in the case of ministerial lines; in contrast, labor market forces determine the extent of descriptive representation in subministerial lines. We provide evidence for this claim from data for 72 countries and show that the advancement of women into ministerial posts depends on the form of electoral system and presence of women in the legislature (conditional on being in a parliamentary system). In contrast, the subministerial representation for women depends on the supply of women in the workforce. Additionally, the increased incidence of women in ministerial lines is associated with an increase in representation in subministerial lines.

Women’s Representation in Legislatures and Cabinets in Industrial Democracies

Across the advanced industrial polities, there exists a wide range in the percentage of women in national parliaments. However, the range is in fact wider still for women in cabinets. Moreover, whereas the literature on comparative female representation in parliament is now well established, comparative analysis of women in cabinets is rather limited. This article will examine both phenomena, using the most recent national elections (through the end of 1998) and subsequent governments in 28 nations. For each of “women in parliament” and “women in cabinet” a model is produced which explains most of the variance. An additional “Scandinavian effect” is found for women in cabinet, but not for women in parliament.