IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/amposc/v58y2014i2p495-510.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ethnic Politics and Women's Empowerment in Africa: Ministerial Appointments to Executive Cabinets

Author

Listed:
  • Leonardo R. Arriola
  • Martha C. Johnson

Abstract

Under what conditions do women participate in executive power in multiethnic societies? Previous research has examined how political institutions, socioeconomic factors, and cultural norms affect the appointment of women as cabinet ministers. However, no study has assessed the extent to which the politicization of ethnicity—a cleavage that shapes political life in many countries—affects women's cabinet appointments. Focusing on sub‐Saharan Africa, we argue that women are less likely to become cabinet ministers where incumbents use such appointments to build patronage‐based alliances with politicians who act as advocates for ethnic constituencies. Using an original dataset on the composition of cabinets in 34 African countries from 1980 to 2005, we show that women's share of cabinet appointments is significantly lower in countries where leaders must accommodate a larger number of politicized ethnic groups, but it rises with higher levels of democracy and greater representation of women in parliament.

Suggested Citation

  • Leonardo R. Arriola & Martha C. Johnson, 2014. "Ethnic Politics and Women's Empowerment in Africa: Ministerial Appointments to Executive Cabinets," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(2), pages 495-510, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:58:y:2014:i:2:p:495-510
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12075
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12075
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/ajps.12075?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrea Guariso & Bert Ingelaere & Marijke Verpoorten, 2017. "Female political representation in the aftermath of ethnic violence: A comparative analysis of Burundi and Rwanda," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-74, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Andrea Guariso & Bert Ingelaere & Marijke Verpoorten, 2017. " Female political representation in the aftermath of ethnic voilence. A comparative analysis of Burundi and Rwanda," Working Papers of LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance 610137, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance.
    3. Subrat Sarangi & R. K. Renin Singh & Barun Kumar Thakur, 2023. "Interrelationship between Share of Women in Parliament and Gender and Development: A Critical Analysis," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, April.
    4. Bleck, Jaimie & Michelitch, Kristin, 2018. "Is women’s empowerment associated with political knowledge and opinions? Evidence from rural Mali," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 299-323.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:58:y:2014:i:2:p:495-510. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5907 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.