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？我们提出，行政部门中的女性任职会降低内阁提前终结的风险。正如社会心理学领域的学者所言，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。因此，若政府由女性领导，或内阁中包含大量女性成员，执政党派之间乃至党派内部的争端——此类争端最终会引发内阁提前终结——的出现与升级概率理应更低。为验证这一理论逻辑，我们依托事件史分析（event history analysis）方法，对1945年至2018年间覆盖27个欧洲国家、共计676届政府的全新编制综合性数据集展开分析。研究结果显示，女性内阁成员占比更高的内阁，其提前终结的风险显著更低。本文为女性政治领袖相关研究提供了新增实证证据，进一步佐证了领导风格的性别属性。