Do Men and Women Perceive Corruption Differently? Explaining Gender Differences in Perception of Need and Greed Corruption

Do men and women perceive corruption differently? While evidence suggests that there is a strong link between gender and corruption and that such differences can at least partly be derived from differences in perceptions of the corruption problem, most studies to date focus on gender differences in perceptions of the scale or severity of the corruption problem, rather than its different forms. However, factors such as role socialization, social status and experiences may also make men and women perceive different kinds of corruption. Drawing on the distinction between need and greed corruption, this paper suggests that women are more likely than men to perceive that corruption is driven by need rather than greed. In particular, women may be more likely to be exposed to need corruption because of their greater caretaking responsibilities both in the professional and private sphere, and, much in line with marginalization theory, have easier access to forms of corruption that are less dependent upon embeddedness in collusive networks. Using unique survey data the paper shows that women and men indeed differ in their perceptions of need vs greed and that women perceive more need corruption, while men perceive more greed corruption. This suggests that perceptions of different forms of corruption are indeed gendered.