Abstract
Women remain underrepresented in cabinets, especially in high-prestige, “masculine” portfolios. Still, a growing number of states have appointed women to the finance ministry—a powerful position typically reserved for men. Drawing on the “glass cliff” phenomenon, we examine the relationship between financial crises and women’s ascension to, and survival in, this post. With an original dataset on appointments to finance ministries worldwide (1972–2017), we show that women are more likely to first come to power during a banking crisis. These results also hold for currency and inflation crises and even when accounting for the political and economic conditions that might otherwise explain this relationship. Subsequent examination of almost 3,000 finance ministers’ tenures shows that, once in office, crises shorten men’s (but not women’s) time in the post. Together, these results suggest that women can sometimes seize on crises as opportunities to access traditionally male-dominated positions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1305-1323 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | American Political Science Review |
| Volume | 118 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 1 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Political Science Association.
Funding
We thank Michelle Taylor-Robinson and the faculty and students at the University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin, University of California-Berkeley, University of Pittsburgh, Western University, and Texas A&M University for their comments on this research. We thank Sonal Churiwal, Benjamin Leo, Stephen Morkel, Camila Rezende Tavares Pimentel, Aliyyah M. Sadek, and Emma Thyne for their research assistance. We also thank the editors and reviewers at the American Political Science Review for their thoughtful guidance and feedback throughout the editorial process. Earlier drafts of this paper were presented at the 2019 and 2021 meetings of the American Political Science Association. This research is funded by the National Science Foundation (SES-1851407 and SES-1851457). This research is funded by the National Science Foundation (SES-1851407 and SES-1851457).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Western University | |
| University of Maryland, University of Wisconsin, University of California-Berkeley | |
| American Political Science Association | |
| University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh | |
| Texas AandM University | |
| National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program | SES-1851407, 1851407, SES-1851457 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
- Political Science and International Relations