Strategic Resource Allocation, Gender, Autonomy, and Policy Priorities

Abstract

A robust literature in the social sciences has documented that we observe different policies and different politicking when the number of women in legislative bodies or executive posts increases. However, we still struggle to understand what portion of these differences are driven by the priorities of women in politics rather than a result of their marginalized place in politics. Women and men in politics must balance the multiple roles they accept when they become a part of government, and it is possible that observed gendered differences are driven by men and women prioritizing their multiple roles differently. To explain how men and women in appointed and elected posts may allocate their time and resources between the different roles they must balance, I develop a theory of strategic resource allocation. In order to explore whether or not the strategies and priorities of men and women in politics differ, I test for gendered differences in strategic al-location of resources across a series of priorities for finance ministers, members of the Colombian Congress, and US state attorneys general. In these three posts, I also test whether or not, within those specific activities, men and women prioritize stereotypically gendered policies differently, with the expectation that women should prioritize stereotypically feminine issue areas. However, their ability to prioritize specific roles and policy areas in these posts varies. Finance ministers, Colombian congressmembers, and US state attorneys general operate with increasing levels of autonomy, and their ability to implement their preferred strategy likely increases as autonomy increases. Across the differing contexts, I find some evidence that men and women are allocating their time and resources across different tasks, and within those tasks, to propagating different policy priorities. Although, the patterns do appear to be moderated by the level of autonomy granted to the post under study. As level of autonomy increases, there appear to be differences in how resources are allocated across the many tasks balanced by the position under study. However, the same pattern does not appear to hold for allocation of issue priorities within the prioritized task (i.e., the prioritization of stereotypically feminine policy areas).