Do Men and Women Perceive Corruption Differently? Gender Differences in Perception of Need and Greed Corruption

Abstract

Do men and women perceive corruption differently? While evidence suggest that there is a strong link between gender and corruption, and that gender differences can at least partly be derived from men and women having different attitudes towards corruption, most studies to date focus on gender differences in perceptions of the scale or severity of the corruption in general, rather than its different forms. However, we argue that factors such as role socialization, social status and life experiences may make men and women perceive different kinds of corruption. Drawing on the distinction between ‘need’ and ‘greed’ corruption, we suggest that women are more likely than men to perceive that corruption is driven by need rather than greed. In particular, women may be more likely to be exposed to need corruption because of their greater care taking responsibilities both in the professional and private sphere, and, much in line with marginalization theory, have easier access to forms of corruption that are less dependent upon embeddedness in collusive networks. Using unique survey data, we show that women and men indeed differ in their perceptions of need vs. greed, and that women perceive more need corruption, while men perceive more greed corruption. This suggests that perceptions of different forms of corruption are indeed gendered and we discuss the implication of this for anti-corruption policy.

Do women always behave as corruption cleaners?

“…Experimental evidence suggests an affirmative answer, showing that females generally are less likely than males to engage in corrupt acts (Alatas et al, 2009;Fisar et al, 2016;Jha & Sarangi, 2018;Rivas, 2013; for excellent surveys, see Abbink, 2006;Frank et al, 2011;Chaudhuri, 2012;Stensöta & Wängnerud, 2018), and that female voters tend to punish corrupt politicians and their parties more harshly than male voters (Eggers et al, 2018). 1 In line with those experimental results, several survey-based studies document a stark, negative correlation between being female and corruption levels or tolerance of corruption (Alexander, 2018;Alexander & Bågenholm, 2018;Bauhr & Charron, 2020;Dollar et al, 2001;Esarey & Chirillo, 2013;Esarey & Schwindt-Bayer, 2018;Lee & Guven, 2013;Sundström & Wängnerud, 2016;Swamy et al, 2001;Torgler & Valev, 2010;Vijayalakshmi, 2008). 2 While the literature suggests a possible gender-corruption link, the mechanisms through which this link evolves remain under-explored.…”

Will Women Executives Reduce Corruption? Marginalization and Network Inclusion

“…Thus, we see a number of potential avenues for future research as data becomes available. Under what circumstances women reduce corruption and also whether this effect continues over time clearly warrants more attention, since it may be contingent on the positions women attain, and what kind of corruption they deem most salient and in what contexts ( Bauhr & Charron, 2020 ). Our evidence relies on data from a subset of units in a single country with a relatively high proportion of female representation at the local level, and previous research suggests that the relationship between women’s representation and corruption is moderated by factors such as political systems ( Esarey & Chirillo, 2013 ), thus we are cautious in terms of broad generalizability.…”

Modeling Political Corruption in Spain

“…Several studies have empirically evidenced a negative relation between women's presence in politics and its effect on corruption [51,52]. This can be explained by different gender behavior as women are generally more collaborative than men, but also more altruistic and ready to engage in "helping" behavior [53,54]. Moreover, in accordance with [51], political corruption is a deterrent to women's representation because it reinforces "clientelist" networks that privilege men.…”

“…The literature evidences gender differences in social behavior. Women are more riskaverse [101], more inequality-averse and more cooperative and altruistic than men [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57].…”

“…According to previous evidence, we posit the hypothesis that women are less prone to corruption either because they are subject to more control and expectations or their own attitude toward public service, social engagement and education prevents them from doing so [53,54]. Moreover, in accordance with [52], we considered two different scenarios and computed the results for 2023.…”