How women in the executive influence government stability

Does the gender of prime ministers and cabinet ministers influence cabinet duration? We argue that the risk for early termination of cabinets decreases with women’s presence in the executive. As scholars of social psychology indicate, women apply more consensual and compromise-oriented conflict resolution strategies. Disputes between or within governing parties, which ultimately lead to early termination, should therefore be less likely to emerge and escalate if the government is led by a woman or includes numerous female members. To test this rationale, we analyse a newly compiled, comprehensive dataset covering 676 governments in 27 European countries between 1945 and 2018 by relying on event history analysis. The results suggest that cabinets with a higher proportion of female cabinet members experience a lower risk of early cabinet termination. This article contributes to the study of women as political leaders through additional evidence for the gendered nature of leadership styles.

首相与内阁大臣的性别是否会对内阁任期产生影响？本文提出，行政分支中的女性占比越高，内阁提前终止的风险便越低。正如社会心理学领域学者所言，女性更倾向于采用协商共识、以妥协为导向的冲突解决策略。执政党派间或党派内部的争端最终会引发内阁提前终止，因此若政府由女性领导或包含大量女性内阁成员，此类争端的出现与升级概率理应更低。为验证这一理论逻辑，本文依托事件史分析方法，对1945年至2018年间27个欧洲国家共计676届内阁的全新汇编综合数据集展开分析。研究结果表明，女性内阁成员占比更高的内阁，其提前终止的风险显著更低。本研究为领导风格的性别属性提供了新增实证证据，丰富了女性政治领导者相关研究领域。