How Women in the Executive Influence Government Stability

Zeit: 
17.02.2020 - 12:00 bis 13:30
Ort: 
A 5,6 Raum A 231
Art der Veranstaltung: 
AB B-Kolloquium
Vortragende/r: 
Prof. Corinna Kröber
Zugehörigkeit des Vortragenden: 
Universität Greifswald
Beschreibung: 

This talk presents original research studying the relationship between the duration of governments and the gender of prime ministers and ministers. My proposition is that women's presence in political offices reduces the risk of early termination of governments. I argue that this is a consequence of gender differences in leadership style that scholars of Social Psychology revealed, more precisely distinct conflict-resolution strategies. An event history analysis based on comparative dataset covering 676 governments in 27 European countries between 1945 and 2018 allows testing the implications of this theory. The empirical evidence lends support for the original expectation showing that especially higher proportions of female ministers reduce the risk of cabinet termination. These insights enhance the understanding of government duration by adding the characteristics of those who govern to well-researched party-level, contextual, and institutional variables. The study further contributes to the growing scholarly work of women as political leaders through additional evidence for the gendered nature of leadership styles. Please note that the talk is based on a paper co-authored with Svenja Krauss (University of Essex).