Women’s Inclusion in Executive Cabinets

This article focuses on trends in women’s inclusion in executive cabinet positions. It discusses the factors facilitating women’s selection to these positions, the quality of portfolios held, and the benefits that gender diversity offers in the cabinet. The percentage of women cabinet ministers has increased worldwide since the 1990s. Moreover, women have started to obtain positions affording more power that are less traditional. At the same time, women still represent a very small portion of cabinet ministers. Conditions that help promote women to power include leftist governments, higher percentages of women in the legislature, and growing international norms valuing gender diversity. Only 21 percent of cabinet ministers are women, but that constitutes record levels. Increasingly, countries have women in at least 50 percent of cabinet positions. This article is organized as follows: It first provides an overview of theoretical foundations related to cabinet selection; it then assesses facilitating conditions related to women’s cabinet incorporation, focusing first on global findings, followed by regional findings. It then addresses types of positions held as well as gender differences in backgrounds. Finally, it outlines the benefits of diverse cabinets.