Female Leaders and Foreign Aid: The Role of Party Preferences

• In Event: From Past to Present: Women’s Political Mobilization and its Policy Impact

Abstract

While the unexpected loss of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election has piqued scholarly interest in studying women leaders so far there are a few studies at the nexus of gender and foreign policy. With some exceptions, this literature generally focused on female legislators and their impact on different foreign policy instruments. However, there is a possibility that, female executives will be different from female legislators in regards to policymaking as in the later case outcomes are the result of collective action and often involve quid pro quo. In addition, compared to legislative post, the executive has a high perception of “maleness” and still lags behind legislative in regards to women’s access. Taking up this challenge, in this study I investigate female leaders? influence on a variety of foreign policy outcomes. I argue that female leaders will be more constrained in shaping the foreign policy. In a traditionally male-dominated field, the policy changes women executives initiate are viewed through a prism of gender. Therefore, women executives will be more cautious in changing foreign policy, specifically on gendered issues that lack the support of parties. I jointly explore two factors, namely gender of the leader and preferences of parties, that has not been considered together to analyze whether gender of the executive leader makes a difference in the allocation of foreign aid. Based on these theoretical perspectives, I hypothesize that when female leaders’ preferences on aid giving overlap with those of parties in the government, they would be more likely to increase foreign aid. Through the analysis of OECD donor countries from 1960 to 2015, I find that female leaders, supported by internationalist parties, are more likely to increase aid.

Author

• Ulkar Imamverdiyeva, University of Houston