Informal Taxation, Co-Production and Political Gender Bias: A Theory of Voter Bias Against Women Village Leaders

Are voters particularly biased against women holding village leadership positions? We initially theorize that traditional ceremonial roles drive anti-woman bias for rural village leadership positions. Our results partially align with expectations. While we find that voters in rural areas are more biased against women as village leaders than for other positions, our results and follow-up interviews suggest a different mechanism. We find that women face heightened voter bias because village leadership positions require personal authority, stereotypically seen as a male trait necessary to mobilize co-production. Support for this explanation comes from three waves of a massive, nationally representative survey in Vietnam. The findings demonstrate that women face high levels of bias against becoming village leaders in rural areas, where personal authority is important. This suggests that bias against women village leaders is rooted in the need for informal taxation, distinguishing it from biases against women in other positions.