The Appointment of Women to Authoritarian Cabinets in Africa

Abstract What explains variation in the inclusion of women authoritarian cabinets? We theorize that leaders electoral autocracies are affected by changing international norms democracy and women's rights to appoint ministers. propose two hypotheses. First, increasing dependence on aid from democratic donors encourages more Second, autocrats uprooting traits ministers minimize reputational costs their autocratization. Using data regimes 38 African countries between 1973 2013, we find increases democracies associated with modest share cabinet seats. As our theory suggests, this relationship holds only recent years when gender equality have been strongest. Conversely, no evidence autocratization periods share. Additionally, show supply-side factors politics multi-ethnic coalition building appear explain differences seat autocracies.