Weak presidents and present women ministers
Authors
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Anabella Molina
Universidad de Buenos Aires
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7394-8589
Abstract
Gender representation in presidential cabinets has been little explored from a comparative perspective that includes a broad set of countries over an extended period. In the last 20 years, a significant number of governments that formed parity cabinets have coexisted in Latin America, along with others with little or no gender representation. This work intends to investigate the determining factors that lead presidents to form more representative cabinets in terms of gender. To answer this question, a statistical study is carried out that observes the expanded inaugural cabinets of 18 Latin American countries from 1999 to 2019. A gender participation index is also applied that considers not only the number of women, but also the gender and relevance of the portfolios to which they have been designated. It is found that presidents with less legislative support select opening strategies, in which they designate more women to broaden their political support and send signals to broad sectors of the electorate.Keywords:
Presidentialism, ministries, legislative supportReferences
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