The WhoGov Dataset

The Who Governs (WhoGov) dataset is a comprehensive dataset of members of government from all countries in the world that have a population of more than 400,000. The dataset covers the years 1966 to 2023 and contains more than 58,000 cabinet members in 177 countries. This dataset was collected by Jacob Nyrup, Stuart Bramwell, and Gabriel Lönn.

The dataset can be accessed here. We will present the dataset below. While reading, please keep in mind the questions you see below and answer them once you reached the end. In the end, we will provide a link to a platform with an interactive version of the dataset and additional tasks.

General Tasks for the Dataset

Tasks
Which ministries have women held primarily around the world?
Are women more likely to hold high or low-profile offices?

Dataset Description

The WhoGov dataset exists in two forms: either as cross-sectional (by government), or as a long format with one row per member of government.

Cross-Sectional Data

The cross-sectional dataset has one row per year for each country in the dataset. Data is collected in July, so each row is a snapshot of the government composition for that country in the middle of the respective year. Table 2 shows some of the variables in the dataset. Besides the year and country name, we find the name of the head of government. Additionally, it lists the party of the government leader. Finally, we show two more variables: The share of women among cabinet members and the overall number of cabinet members.

Table 2: Main Variables in the dataset

year	country_name	leader	leader_party	n_female_total	n_individuals
2023	Greece	Kyriakos Mitsotakis	nd	5	28
2023	United Kingdom	Rishi Sunak	con	10	35
2023	New Zealand	Chris Hipkins	lp	15	29
2023	Switzerland	Alain Berset	sp	4	11
2023	Latvia	Krisjanis Karins	v	6	19
2023	Norway	Jonas Gahr Store	dna	11	23
2023	Montenegro	Dritan Abazovic	ura	5	21
2023	Moldova	Dorin Recean	independent	6	19
2023	Albania	Edi Rama	pss	13	21
2023	France	Emmanuel Macron	larem	19	44

The dataset provides additional information on the governments: n_party shows the number of parties, while govern_name is the name of the government as per the ParlGov database described in chapter 7 and 12, govern_start_date and govern_end_date are also taken from ParlGov and system_category is a classification of regime type. The most common regime types in the dataset are civilian dictatorship, military dictatorship, parliamentary democracy and presidential democracy.

Table 3: Main Variables in the dataset

year	country_name	n_party	govern_name	govern_start_date	govern_end_date	system_category
2023	Greece	1	Mitsotakis Kyr II	2023-06-26	NA	Parliamentary democracy
2023	United Kingdom	1	Sunak I	2022-10-25	NA	Parliamentary democracy
2023	New Zealand	2	Hipkins	2023-01-25	2022-11-27	Parliamentary democracy
2023	Switzerland	4	Bundesrat 2019	2019-12-11	NA	Presidential democracy
2023	Latvia	5	Karins II	2022-12-14	2023-09-15	Parliamentary democracy
2023	Norway	2	Store	2021-10-14	NA	Parliamentary democracy
2023	Montenegro	7	Abazovic	2022-04-28	2023-10-31	Mixed democratic
2023	Moldova	1	Recean	2023-02-16	NA	Parliamentary democracy
2023	Albania	1	Rama III	2021-09-18	NA	Parliamentary democracy
2023	France	3	Borne II	2022-06-19	NA	Mixed democratic

Table 4 shows some variables that are calculated on the basis of the dataset: average_total is the average tenure of government members in years, while retention_rateadj_total is the share of government members that were retained from the previous year. Finally, age_total shows the average age of cabinet members.

Table 4: Main Variables in the dataset

year	govern_name	average_total	retention_rateadj_total	age_total
2023	Mitsotakis Kyr II	3.370370	0.5925926	54.64286
2023	Sunak I	2.882353	0.4117647	53.97143
2023	Hipkins	3.714286	0.6250000	50.91549
2023	Bundesrat 2019	5.200000	0.8181818	58.61538
2023	Karins II	3.555556	0.4444444	52.61111
2023	Store	4.000000	0.9130435	50.73913
2023	Abazovic	2.600000	0.7916667	47.66667
2023	Recean	2.000000	0.4761905	47.75000
2023	Rama III	3.550000	0.8571429	48.25000
2023	Borne II	2.883721	0.8437500	50.46667

The dataset also includes the names of the ministers in some of the ministries: finance, agriculture, defense and foreign affairs. These cabinet members are shown in Table 5.

Table 5 Main Variables in the dataset

year	country_name	m_finance	m_agriculture	m_defense	m_foreignaffairs
2023	Greece	Constantinos Chatzidakis	Lefteris Avgenakis	Nikolaos Dendias	Georgios Gerapetritis
2023	United Kingdom	Jeremy Hunt	Therese Coffey	Ben Wallace	James Cleverly
2023	New Zealand	Grant Robertson	Damien Oconnor	Andrew Little	Nanaia Mahuta
2023	Switzerland	Karin Keller-Sutter	Na	Viola Amherd	Ignazio Cassis
2023	Latvia	Arvils Aseradens	Didzis Smits	Inara Murniece	Edgars Rinkevics
2023	Norway	Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	Sandra Borch	Bjorn Alrild Gram	Anniken Huitfeldt
2023	Montenegro	Aleksandar Damjanovic	Vladimir Jokovic	Na	Dritan Abazovic
2023	Moldova	Veronica Sireteanu	Vladimir Bolea	Anatolie Nosatii	Nicu Popescu
2023	Albania	Delina Ibrahimi	Frida Krifca	Niko Peleshi	Olta Xhacka
2023	France	Bruno Le Maire	Marc Fesneau	Sebastien Lecornu	Catherine Colonna

Within-country Data

In the within-country dataset, each cabinet member has one row for each year. That means that every member of the German government in July 2018 has one row, as shown in Table 6. If some of these members were already in cabinet in July 2017, they will be in the government again for that year. For each member, Table 6 show some basic demographic information: position, name, gender, birthyear and party.

Table 6: Main Variables in the within-country dataset

year	country_name	position	name	gender	birthyear	party
2018	Germany	Fed. President	Frank-Walter Steinmeier	Male	1956	spd
2018	Germany	Chancellor	Angela Merkel	Female	1954	cdu
2018	Germany	Vice Chancellor	Olaf Scholz	Male	1958	spd
2018	Germany	Min. Of Defense	Ursula Von Der Leyen	Female	1958	cdu
2018	Germany	Min. For Economic Cooperation & Development	Gerd Mueller	Male	1955	csu
2018	Germany	Min. For Economics & Energy	Peter Altmaier	Male	1958	cdu
2018	Germany	Min. For Education & Research	Anja Karliczek	Female	1971	cdu
2018	Germany	Min. For The Environment, Nature Conservation & Reactor Security	Svenja Schulze	Female	1968	spd
2018	Germany	Min. For Family, Seniors, Women & Youth	Franziska Giffey	Female	1978	spd
2018	Germany	Min. Of Finance	Olaf Scholz	Male	1958	spd
2018	Germany	Min. For Food & Agriculture	Julia Kloeckner	Female	1972	cdu
2018	Germany	Min. Of Foreign Affairs	Heiko Maas	Male	1966	spd
2018	Germany	Min. For Health	Jens Spahn	Male	1980	cdu
2018	Germany	Min. Of Interior, Building & Homeland	Horst Seehofer	Male	1949	csu
2018	Germany	Min. Of Justice & Consumer Protection	Katarina Barley	Female	1968	spd
2018	Germany	Min. For Labor & Social Affairs	Hubertus Heil	Male	1972	spd
2018	Germany	Min. For Transportation & Digital Infrastructure	Andreas Scheuer	Male	1974	csu
2018	Germany	Chancellery Chief	Helge Braun	Male	1972	cdu
2018	Germany	President, Bundesbank	Jens Weidmann	Male	1968	NA
2018	Germany	Ambassador To The Us	Emily Haber	Female	1956	NA
2018	Germany	Permanent Representative To The Un, New York	Christoph Heusgen	Male	1955	NA

The dataset also provides more information on the positions of each cabinet member: the name of the position, the classification, portfolio and prestige of the portfolio (low, medium, high), ash shown in Table 7. How positions are categorised into portfolio and prestige can be researched on the WhoGov website: https://www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/our-research/research-centres/nuffield-politics-research-centre/whogov/

Table 7: Main Variables in the dataset

year	country_name	position	name	classification	portfolio_1	prestige_1
2018	Germany	Fed. President	Frank-Walter Steinmeier	President	NA	NA
2018	Germany	Chancellor	Angela Merkel	Chief of State	NA	NA
2018	Germany	Vice Chancellor	Olaf Scholz	Deputy Chief of State	NA	NA
2018	Germany	Min. Of Defense	Ursula Von Der Leyen	Minister (Full Rank)	Defense, Military & National Security	High
2018	Germany	Min. For Economic Cooperation & Development	Gerd Mueller	Minister (Full Rank)	Foreign Economic Relations	Medium
2018	Germany	Min. For Economics & Energy	Peter Altmaier	Minister (Full Rank)	Energy	Medium
2018	Germany	Min. For Education & Research	Anja Karliczek	Minister (Full Rank)	Education, Training & Skills	Medium
2018	Germany	Min. For The Environment, Nature Conservation & Reactor Security	Svenja Schulze	Minister (Full Rank)	Environment	Medium
2018	Germany	Min. For Family, Seniors, Women & Youth	Franziska Giffey	Minister (Full Rank)	Children & Family	Low
2018	Germany	Min. Of Finance	Olaf Scholz	Minister (Full Rank)	Finance, Budget & Treasury	High
2018	Germany	Min. For Food & Agriculture	Julia Kloeckner	Minister (Full Rank)	Agriculture, Food, Fisheries & Livestock	Medium
2018	Germany	Min. Of Foreign Affairs	Heiko Maas	Minister (Full Rank)	Foreign Relations	High
2018	Germany	Min. For Health	Jens Spahn	Minister (Full Rank)	Health & Social Welfare	Medium
2018	Germany	Min. Of Interior, Building & Homeland	Horst Seehofer	Minister (Full Rank)	Government, Interior & Home Affairs	High
2018	Germany	Min. Of Justice & Consumer Protection	Katarina Barley	Minister (Full Rank)	General Economic Affairs	Medium
2018	Germany	Min. For Labor & Social Affairs	Hubertus Heil	Minister (Full Rank)	Labor, Employment & Social Security	Medium
2018	Germany	Min. For Transportation & Digital Infrastructure	Andreas Scheuer	Minister (Full Rank)	Transport	Medium
2018	Germany	Chancellery Chief	Helge Braun	Other	NA	NA
2018	Germany	President, Bundesbank	Jens Weidmann	Governor (Central Bank)	NA	NA
2018	Germany	Ambassador To The Us	Emily Haber	Ambassador to the United States	NA	NA
2018	Germany	Permanent Representative To The Un, New York	Christoph Heusgen	Representative to the United Nations	NA	NA

Figure 1 shows an analysis of the kind of offices that women have held around the world. Prestige level is assigned to portfolios held by politicians in the dataset. The figure shows that around 24% of male cabinet members are assigned to high prestige portfolios, while women are assigned only to 13% and more often to low profile ones instead.

Figure 2 shows the portfolios that women are the most responsible for across the world in the complete dataset.