She who pays for stereotypes
Female leaders and military spending
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24225210 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nila Zarepour-Arizi (0009-0009-3075-881X, Texas Tech University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 955-966 |
| Publication date | 2026-09-09 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Peace Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jopres/xjag040 |
| OpenAlex | W7165621394 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 109 |
The elections of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah in Namibia and Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico as the first female presidents mark a milestone in the historic progress of women to the executive. This growing number of female leaders has attracted considerable attention from scholars and the public. While some research suggests that women adopt more masculine and assertive policies, others find no significant differences in policy preferences of male and female leaders. Building on “social role theory” and the “lack of fit” model, I suggest that female leaders are more inclined to pursue assertive policies, such as increasing military spending, as a strategy to assert their competence as national leaders and navigate gendered biases. Given the small number of female leaders and their nonrandom election, I incorporate entropy weighting into two-way fixed-effects models and a staggered difference-in-differences to examine the relationship between female leaders and military spending from 1966 to 2021. The results indicate that countries with women in leadership tend to increase their military spending slightly more than those led by men. However, such behavior is mitigated as the share of women in the legislature increases. Additionally, this increase in military spending corresponds with a relative reduction in health and education expenditures. These findings contribute to broader discussions on how stereotypes and sexism influence spending decisions made by female leaders.
defense spending · gender stereotypes · Mexico · Namibia · Sexism · social role theory · women in leadership · Women politicians · Defense, Military, and Policy Studies · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender, Security, and Conflict
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| Highly cited | No |
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