It's a Long Way to the Top: Women's Ministerial Career Paths

Abstract

Ministerial portfolios that promise high status, broad public visibility, and extensive financial and personnel resources continue to be men's domains. In this article, we shed light on gender inequality in ministerial selection processes by studying the duration from a minister's original appointment as a member of cabinet until he or she receives responsibility for a highly prestigious portfolio. We argue that the time it takes for ambitious politicians to prove themselves suitable for this type of cabinet position depends on their sex and the degree to which the policy area for which they are responsible reinforces stereotypical expectations about their personality traits. Empirical evidence from event history analysis of original data including detailed information on all ministerial careers in 27 European countries between 1990 to 2018 supports these propositions. These findings reveal that even highly qualified women politicians who are already members of the executive face additional barriers during their political careers.

Gendering Cabinet Reshuffles in France and Spain

“…Low-prestige posts include sport, culture, science, women and youth, while midprestige posts include all the economic and social welfare posts such as energy, industry, education, housing and the like. Based on consistent findings of women's lower likelihood of receiving high-prestige portfolios (Goddard 2019;Kroeber and Hüffelmann 2022;Krook and O'Brien 2012), we expect to see similar patterns, with men more likely to hold high-prestige posts for both initial and reshuffled cabinets in France and Spain (H4). 13 Research on whether women are more likely to exit during a term is limited; hence, we have no firm basis on which to predict gender differences in cabinet survival rates.…”

The gender gap in political psychology

“…It is again rather striking that the topics women scholars work on are the very same type of topics that women politicians are associated with. In electoral politics, even though women’s overall proportions in the governments of developed democracies have increased considerably over the last few decades, women cabinet ministers in charge of the most prestigious (i.e., pivotal, resourceful, and visible) positions remain an exception ( Krook and O’Brien, 2012 ; Kroeber and Hüffelmann, 2021 ). Women members of government typically preside over low-prestige portfolios, such as Women, Equality, Minority Affairs, Culture, Minority Affairs, and Immigration ( Kroeber and Hüffelmann, 2021 ).…”

“…It is again rather striking that the topics women scholars work on are the very same type of topics that women politicians are associated with. In electoral politics, even though women's overall proportions in the governments of developed democracies have increased considerably over the last few decades, women cabinet ministers in charge of the most prestigious (i.e., pivotal, resourceful, and visible) positions remain an exception (Krook and O'Brien, 2012;Kroeber and Hüffelmann, 2021). Women members of government typically preside over low-prestige portfolios, such as Women, Equality, Minority Affairs, Culture, Minority Affairs, and Immigration 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1072494 (Kroeber and Hüffelmann, 2021).…”

Sex, gender, and promotion in executive office: Cabinet careers in the world of Westminster

“…Thus, if prestigious positions go to men on first appointment then promotion chances are gendered. In Kroeber and Hüffelmann's (2021) data, women are less likely to be appointed to high-prestige posts initially, while in Latin American presidential cabinets Escobar-Lemmon and Taylor-Robinson (2005) find that women are less able to use their initial post to gain high-prestige posts later. Thus, given previous findings we also expect to find that in comparison with men:…”

“…While achieving ministerial office represents the peak of a parliamentary career, our analysis addresses the gendered dimensions of executive influence, given not all ministerial roles are equally important. Others have examined the barriers to women attaining ministerial posts, the proportion of women in cabinet and the types of portfolio to which they are assigned (Barnes & O'Brien, 2018;Borelli, 2010;Goddard, 2019aGoddard, , 2019bSiaroff, 2000;Tremblay et al, 2015) few have looked at what happens afterwards (Kroeber & Hüffelmann, 2021;Müller-Rommel & Vercesi, 2017). Both retaining ministerial office and promotion within cabinet is desirable and arguably necessary for promotion to the prime ministership (Berlinski et al, 2010;Dowding & Dumont, 2015).…”