ABSTRACT
Although much has been written on the implications of the MENA region’s poor performance in gender equality for democracy, there is no research focusing on the implications for corruption in the region. Yet a growing body of evidence links gender inequality and corruption. Evidence from across the globe reveals a rather robust pattern: where gender inequality is high, corruption is likely high and vice versa. In this case, one would assume that the MENA’s poor performance in gender equality has implications for the prevalence of corruption in the region. Thus, this chapter looks into the gender equality / anti-corruption link with a special focus on how this affects countries in the MENA. The aim is to evaluate whether poor performance in gender equality in the region is linked to higher corruption and whether empowering women is a strategy for curbing corruption in the region. Moving in this direction, I work with public opinion data from the latest wave of the World Values Survey to explore gender differences in tolerance for a common form of corruption, bribery, among a sample of 15,600 respondents from 12 MENA countries. Then, I evaluate the most common country-level relationship in the gender equality and corruption literature among a sample of MENA countries. I look at the relationship between the percentage of women in parliaments and perceptions of corruption across 18 MENA countries, controlling for GDP per capita and level of democracy.
