@article{2026:kroeber:is_the_ide,
title = {Is the ideal political leader still a man? Gendered conceptions of political leadership in the contemporary political elite in Western European democracies},
year = {2026},
note = {Political leadership has long been associated with masculine traits
such as assertiveness, toughness, and task-orientation. Contemporary
politics challenges and reproduces this model. The growing presence of
women in leadership and crises that highlight the value of cooperation
and care foster more gender-balanced understandings of leadership.
Yet, the rise of radical right parties and anti-gender movements
reinforces masculinized leadership ideals. Against this backdrop, this
article examines how political elites currently define the
relationship between gender and good leadership. We conducted
interviews with 31 Members of Parliament in Austria, Belgium, Denmark,
Germany, and Spain in 2023/2024, asking: “What do you think are the
most important attributes of a good minister?”. Qualitative content
analysis shows that many MPs in our sample favor integrative
leadership styles—cooperative, inclusive, attentive, interpersonally
sensitive, and oriented toward the common good. By contrast,
aggregative notions of leadership appear largely limited to
assertiveness, while traits such as being forceful, controlling, or
individualistic are viewed as detrimental to good leadership by many
respondents. These findings suggest that many Western European elites
embrace leadership ideals consistent with traits ascribed to women,
even in societies far from gender parity and raise questions about the
reasons behind persistent inequalities in political leadership.},
journal = {Culture, Practice & Europeanization},
pages = {56--83},
author = {Kroeber, Corinna and Dingler, Sarah C.},
volume = {11},
number = {1}
}