A new study suggests that women involved in politics are less likely to be corrupt than their male counterparts.
Time’s Swampland highlights the study from Rice University that says women in democratic countries are less prone to engage in corrupt activities and more likely to disapprove when they become aware of corruption.
“States that have more corruption tend to be less democratic,” study author Justin Esarey told Science Daily. “In autocracies, bribery, favoritism, and personal loyalty are often characteristic of normal government operations and are not labeled as corruption.”
Esary reportedly theorized that women may feel more bound by the political norms of the society in which they are operating. Simply recruiting more women into politics in deeply corrupt countries would thus not decrease corruption; but in less corrupt countries, recruiting more women into public service may indeed decrease overall corruption.
