Performative Representation: Gender, Regime Type, and Ministerial Appointments

• In Event: Gender and Authoritarian States

Abstract

A robust literature examines how regime type and democracy levels influence female legislative representation. Yet, limited research explores their impact on the share and prestige of female ministerial appointments. We argue that regime type alone minimally explains cross-national variation in the proportion of female ministers. However, institutional differences manifest in the status of portfolios women obtain. Our theoretical framework, highlighting performative versus substantive liberalism, proposes that while power-sharing incentives in democracies facilitate appointing women to high-prestige roles, autocracies performatively appoint women to less significant positions, signaling a commitment to liberal norms and political openness to the international audience while maintaining elite power. Leveraging the WhoGov dataset from 1966 to 2020, we find regime type insignificantly predicts the variation in the proportion of female ministers as dictatorships appoint women in numbers equal to democracies. However, democracies exhibit a 19 percent higher probability of appointing women to high-prestige portfolios relative to authoritarian regimes. Particularly, autocracies more frequently appoint women to foreign affairs ministries rather than defense, interior, and finance, highlighting their special attention to performative liberalism in the international landscape. We unveil new insights into status variations, not only proportions, in women’s executive presence worldwide.

Authors

• Jalal Fetrati, University of Michigan

• Saber Khani, Boston College

• Akash Chopra, Boston College