Female chief executives and state human rights practices: Self-fulfilling the political double bind

ABSTRACT

What role does gender of a country's chief executive play in human rights practices of that country? Do female leaders treat the citizens of their country better or worse than their male counterparts? We explore whether gender makes a difference in human rights practices in an effort to examine whether leader characteristics can affect human rights. Previous research has found that countries with higher levels of gender equality, measured by the percentage of women in parliament, have fewer physical integrity rights violations. However, previous research has not found an association between female chief executives and better human rights practices overall, despite clear theoretical arguments for a relationship (Melander 2005). Using updated data on female chief executives for the years 1984 to 2011, together with a robust treatment effects estimator, we find that female chief executives do improve human rights when compared to their male counterparts.

Notes

1. We define physical integrity rights here consistently with Cingranelli, Richards, and Clay (2014) and focus in this article on the practices associated with freedom from torture, political killings, political imprisonment, and political disappearances. These, of course, are not the only rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

2. We define physical integrity rights here consistently with Cingranelli, Richards, and Clay (2014) and focus in this article on the practices associated with freedom from torture, political killings, political imprisonment, and political disappearances. These, of course, are not the only rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

3. For illustrative purposes only, the online Appendix gives results of treatment effects models that do not account for endogeneity.

Additional information

Funding

Amanda Murdie acknowledges that her work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2016S1A3A2925085).

Notes on contributors

Courtney Burns

Notes on contributors

Courtney Burns is an assistant professor of political science at Georgia Southern University.

Amanda Murdie

Amanda Murdie is the Dean Rusk Scholar of International Relations at the University of Georgia.