Remembering the “Human” in Human Trafficking: An Analysis of Female Leadership and Anti-Trafficking Policy Choices

Abstract

Could gender expectations play a role in executive leadership policy choices on human trafficking? To help explain why executive leaders of different genders may prioritize starkly different policies on the same issue, we situate our argument within the political double bind. We posit that human trafficking, a crime that exists at the nexus between foreign and domestic and masculine and feminine policy choices, is an arena where women will be more likely to demonstrate that they are compassionate domestically, thus choosing to fulfill the “feminine” side of the double bind over the “masculine” side. Using a cross-sectional time series regression analysis of forty-eight women leaders, we test this expected pattern for the years 2000–2016 and find that as the double bind suggests, women leaders prioritize protection measures over prosecution or prevention measures when addressing human trafficking, thereby fulfilling the domestic expectations of “feminine” leadership performance over the international expectations of “masculine” leadership performance to combat this crime. We also find that women have higher scores for anti-trafficking policy on the aggregate, indicating flexibility, and pointing to the careful balancing act women leaders must play when making policy choices.