Ties that bind? Women leaders’ voting congruence in the United Nations General Assembly

Does the gender of political leaders shape a country’s foreign policy? Some suggest that women leaders are more likely to express similar foreign policy preferences with other women leaders, while others suggest that gender has negligible or no influence on leaders’ foreign policy preferences. We argue that women leaders, specifically state legislators and chief executives, show distinctive foreign policy positions. Our analysis of voting records in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), one of the principal organs and the primary policy-making body of the United Nations (UN), lends strong empirical evidence to the assertion that the gender of politicians greatly shapes states’ foreign policy. We further find that this congruence between women leaders holds true regardless of the region and the regime type they represent. These findings suggest that as more states strive to increase women’s representation in the UNGA, corresponding shifts in their foreign policy orientations are likely to follow.