Women Leaders in the European Union: How Institutional Design Impacts their Leadership Strategies

While women’s presence in leadership roles in the European Union has grown over the past few decades, scholars still know very little about their behavior once in power. In this paper, I compare the leadership strategies of women in the European Parliament (EP) with those used in national legislatures and argue women – but not men – change their strategies depending on the institutional environment. Specifically, the unique institutional design of the EP facilitates women’s use of more collaborative and inclusive leadership styles; the nature of policy-making for the whole of Europe and the high level of cultural diversity in this parliament generate a space in which a more communal style is successful. However, the typical design of national legislatures in Europe – and particularly the incentive for credit-claiming and the similarities of members – instead facilitates women’s use of a more agentic and competitive style. Men, on the other hand, do not seem to alter their leadership style to fit the institution; they maintain their preferred style – be it communal or agentic – across institutional settings. Using a data set of personal interviews with members of the European Parliament as well as former members of the French, Belgian, and German parliaments, I find evidence that the institutional differences in these legislative environments are changing the way that women, but not men, lead.