Political corruption perceptions, bribery experiences, and attitudes towards women in politics in Africa

Using Afrobarometer Round 7 data from 34 African countries, we examine whether personal bribery experiences, local bribery incidence, and perceptions of political corruption are associated with attitudes towards women in political leadership. The outcome variable is support for the view that men make better political leaders and should be elected rather than women. We find little evidence that personal bribery experience or local bribery incidence is associated with these attitudes. Instead, the relationship is concentrated in political corruption perceptions and is gendered. In pooled probit models interacting female respondent status with all three corruption measures, only Female × Political Corruption Perceptions is statistically significant at the 5% level. Moving from the 10th to the 90th percentile of political corruption perceptions is associated with a 3.3%-point reduction in women’s predicted support for male-only leadership, but only a marginally significant 1.8%-point increase among men. Although the cross-sectional design precludes causal interpretation, the findings suggest that perceived political corruption may be connected to women’s willingness to question male-dominated political leadership.