Ministerial Politics in Southeastern Europe: Appointment and Portfolio Allocation to Female Ministers

Abstract

In light of the growing scholarship on women's representation in the executive, we examine whether extant theories on the determinants of female ministerial appointments apply to and explain the role of women in the executive in new democracies. We are further interested in better understanding the dynamics of portfolio allocation to female ministers. Given the different meanings that the political left and right carry in new compared with established democracies, we argue that ministerial appointments and portfolio allocations reflect this difference and therefore show diverse results. Presenting data on women ministers in five southeastern European states between 1990 and 2018, we analyze the descriptive representation of women at the highest echelons of political power. We establish that while the standard claim found in the literature that left political parties stage more women and with more progressive views, as shown primarily in scholarship on Western democracies, southeastern European women ministers who are given portfolios traditionally reserved for men are appointed primarily by parties of the right. Moreover, we find little support for the link between legislative and executive representation; rather, we see that the appointment of women ministers is related to the institutionalization level of the parties in power.

Gendering Gamson's Law

“…Davis (1997) and Reynolds (1999), however, find little relationship between ideology and women's appointment to cabinet positions, although Davis finds that left/center-left coalitions are slightly more likely to include women in their cabinets than other types of governments. Siaroff (2000) finds that centrist parties are more likely to include women in their cabinets than left parties, and Rashkova and Zankina (2019) find that right-leaning parties appoint more women to high-prestige ministerial posts than left-leaning parties.…”

Untitled

“…Otro grupo observó además de la distribución de sexo, el prestigio -o importancia- (Basabe-Serrano, 2020;Bego, 2014;M. C. Escobar-Lemmon & Taylor-Robinson, 2005;Field, 2020;Goddard, 2019;Krook, 2010b;Rashkova & Zankina, 2019;D. Studlar & Moncrief, 2002) o el género (M. Escobar-Lemmon & Taylor-Robinson, 2009) de las carteras a las que las ministras fueron designadas.…”

La representación de género en los gabinetes de gobierno -RGGG: Una revisión de literatura enfocada en América Latina (1997-2023)

“…Otro grupo observó además de la distribución de sexo, el prestigio -o importancia- (Basabe-Serrano, 2020;Bego, 2014;M. C. Escobar-Lemmon & Taylor-Robinson, 2005;Field, 2020;Goddard, 2019;Krook, 2010b;Rashkova & Zankina, 2019;D. Studlar & Moncrief, 2002) o el género (M. Escobar-Lemmon & Taylor-Robinson, 2009) de las carteras a las que las ministras fueron designadas.…”