Gendering Cabinet Politics in Italy: Does a Female Prime Minister Have an Effect?

Following the 2022 Italian parliamentary election, Giorgia Meloni became the first woman ever to lead the political executive in the country. Giorgia Meloni is also the leader of the far-right party Brothers of Italy, which is the largest partner in the center-right coalition that supports her government. The new Meloni cabinet is far from being a ‘parity cabinet’, and the percentage of female ministers is even lower than in previous (center-left) cabinets. Admittedly, this is not surprising, in light of previous studies on the impact of ideological party preferences on the selection of women for top political office as well as of Giorgia Meloni’s party positions on this issue. Yet, there is empirical record of even conservative cabinets in parliamentary democracies with much higher presence of women. This paper aims to explain similarities and differences between the Meloni cabinet and other female-led cabinets in terms of women’s appointment in cabinet positions in Europe. What explains deviations in the presence of women relative to politically similar cabinets and features shared with ideologically distant cabinets? Building on the extant literature on the effect of female political leaders on the descriptive representation of women in politics, the study systematically compares European cabinets by number and salience of the held portfolio. It pays particular attention to intra-party factors and country idiosyncrasies as explaining variables; it takes into account cabinets from 2000 to 2022.