Entering the Men’s Domain? Gender and Portfolio Allocation in European Government

• In Event: Poster Session II: Comparative Politics

Abstract

Parties and their leaders matter in the allocation of cabinet portfolios, so what can the characteristics of political parties tell us about which policy areas women ministers are selected for? In this paper, I develop a theoretical framework to consider how party leaders’ attitudes and motivations influence the allocation of policy portfolios to male and female ministers. To explore these partisan dynamics, I bring together data on 7,005 cabinet appointments across 29 European countries. I find that women are more likely to be appointed to ‘masculine’ portfolios when a party’s voters have progressive gender attitudes. Women are less likely to be selected for the ‘core’ offices of state, and ‘masculine’ and ‘neutral’ policy areas, and right-wing parties are much less likely to appoint women to these positions. This theoretical approach and empirical insight enhances our understanding of women’s access to the government, which has important implications for how ministers are selected, as well as how women are represented in the most powerful policy-making positions in Europe.

Author

• Dee Goddard, University of Kent