Investigating corruption charges against womenheads of government

Much of the scholarship on gender and corruption suggests that women in political oÿce are less corrupt than men. However, in just the past five years, corruption accusations against women heads of government, including Brazil’s Dilma Rousse˙ and South Korea’s Park Geun-hye, have made headlines and led to their impeachment. In this article, we examine whether women heads of government are more likely to be charged with corruption and the process by which these charges are levied. Using cross-national data, including recently-available indicators, we first demonstrate that women are significantly more likely to be formally accused of corruption. We then explore the cases of Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller and Brazilian President Dilma Rousse˙ to show that while women heads of government are taxed for perceived role incongruity, the logic and eÿcacy of corruption charges is also associated with the belief that women do not belong in the political sphere and are inherently agents of subversion. These findings make a substantial contribution to the literature on gender, leadership, and politics and corruption