Gender, Representation, and Power in the Executive Branch

How does gender structure access to executive office? How does the organization of the executive branch shape the recruitment of women and their impact in office? This workshop explores the gendered dimensions of the executive branch in comparative perspective. In so doing, it contributes to both the gender and politics literature and the growing literature on the executive branch. More important, the workshop will fill gaps in both literatures: Despite extensive studies of women in parliament, we know little about gender and the executive branch. Yet executive office represents the pinnacle of political power and the strongest opportunity for political actors to use leadership positions to achieve progressive policy change. Within the cabinet and executive branch literature, scholars have lamented the lack of knowledge about the inner workings of executive institutions and the informal dimensions of executive recruitment. Studying the gender dimensions of executives necessarily involves close attention to informal practices and power relations. Global trends make this workshop timely: in the past decade, women in virtually all the major regions of the world have expanded their presence as ministers and chief executives. Women have gained chief executive office and presidential function in Germany, Ireland, and Brazil, and ‘parity cabinets’, aimed at achieving a rough balance of male and female ministers, have appeared in places as diverse as Spain, South Africa, Chile and Wales. As women’s presence in executive office increases, scholars are beginning to explore different routes to leadership and whether women in the executive branch ‘make a difference’. This workshop provides an opportunity for scholars to develop theories on executive recruitment of women, share cross-national findings on the factors shaping women’s recruitment to executive office and also the institutional, political, and cultural factors that determine the impact of female executives on policymaking and gender equality outcomes.