Female cabinet picks: just one more way in which Trump is exceptional

Donald Trump’s cabinet is exceptional in many ways, not least because the share of women in the executive has fallen since the Obama era – even as recent decades have seen it grow all over the world. What effect does government ideology have on cabinet picks? The literature suggests left-wing governments tend to appoint more women. But new research by Daniel Stockemer and Aksel Sundström suggests the link is not straightforward. What in fact prompts women’s promotion is a change of government ideology. In this respect – as in so many others – the Trump administration is an outlier.