Women Chief Executives and Corruption

• In Event: Women as Stewards of the Public Trust: Empirics or Essentialism?

Abstract

The research on women and levels of corruption in countries is mixed. Some research finds that when women are in parliament there are lower levels of corruption; however, this finding has been problematized by others. Furthermore, previous research has found that women leaders face a political double bind. They must exhibit both masculine and feminine traits in positions of leadership. The double bind argument has been applied to mean that women leaders can be more masculine (hawkish, decisive, competitive) in the international arena, while demonstrating feminine (compassionate, nurturing, honest) traits in the domestic arena. This argument has held with human rights and terrorism. However, with famous corruption scandals surrounding leaders like Dilma Roussef of Brazil, I ask whether women leaders lower the corruption levels of the countries they rule. I argue that, despite famous corruption examples of women leaders, women chief executives will lower the corruption levels in their countries because they are attempting to fulfil the pressure of “acting like a woman” within the political double bind. I examine this relationship among 180 countries for the years 1970 to 2013.

Author

• Courtney Burns, Bucknell University