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 2016 and contains more than 50,000 cabinet members. This dataset was collected by Jacob Nyrup and Stuart Bramwell at Aarhus University and the University of Oxford.

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.

Table 1: 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? Evaluate how this changes over time, drawing on examples from Germany.

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. As chapter 7 in the book discusses in more detail, the share of women in cabinet positions has risen in recent years.

Table 2: Main Variables in the dataset

year	country_name	leader	leader_party	n_female_total	n_individuals
2018	Sweden	Stefan Lofven	s	13	27
2018	United Kingdom	Theresa Mary May	con	12	33
2018	Norway	Erna Solberg	h	9	24
2018	Latvia	Maris Kucinskis	zzs	3	18
2018	Estonia	Juri Ratas	ek	5	19
2018	Australia	Malcolm Bligh Turnbull	lpa	6	29
2018	Denmark	Lars Loekke Rasmussen	v	11	26
2018	Luxembourg	Xavier Bettel	dp	4	19
2018	Belgium	Charles Yvon Michel	mr	3	18
2018	Cyprus	Nikos Anastasiadis	disy	3	15

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 6 and 10. 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
2018	Sweden	2	Lofven	2014-10-02	2018-09-09	Parliamentary democracy
2018	United Kingdom	1	May II	2017-06-11	2019-07-24	Parliamentary democracy
2018	Norway	3	Solberg III	2018-01-17	2019-01-21	Parliamentary democracy
2018	Latvia	3	Kucinskis	2016-02-11	2019-01-23	Parliamentary democracy
2018	Estonia	3	Ratas	2016-11-20	2019-04-29	Parliamentary democracy
2018	Australia	4	Turnbull II	2016-07-19	2018-08-24	Parliamentary democracy
2018	Denmark	3	Rasmussen L III	2016-11-28	2019-06-27	Parliamentary democracy
2018	Luxembourg	3	Bettel	2013-12-04	2018-12-05	Parliamentary democracy
2018	Belgium	4	Michel	2014-10-11	2018-12-09	Parliamentary democracy
2018	Cyprus	1	Anastasiades III	2016-05-22	2018-02-13	Presidential democracy

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
2018	Lofven	6.000000	0.8571429	53.32143
2018	May II	4.531250	0.7931034	53.02941
2018	Solberg III	4.304348	0.7083333	50.83333
2018	Kucinskis	6.352941	1.0000000	51.78947
2018	Ratas	4.388889	0.9473684	49.47368
2018	Turnbull II	4.464286	0.7812500	51.16216
2018	Rasmussen L III	6.160000	0.8846154	51.11538
2018	Bettel	6.944444	0.9473684	53.37500
2018	Michel	4.352941	0.8333333	55.68182
2018	Anastasiades III	3.214286	0.6666667	54.15385

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
2018	Sweden	Magdalena Andersson	Sven-Erik Bucht	Peter Hultqvist	Margot Wallstrom
2018	United Kingdom	Philip Hammond	Michael Gove	Gavin Williamson	Boris Johnson
2018	Norway	Siv Jensen	Jon Georg Dale	Frank Bakke-Jensen	Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide
2018	Latvia	Dana Reizniece-Ozola	Janis Duklavs	Raimonds Bergmanis	Edgars Rinkevics
2018	Estonia	Toomas Toniste	Na	Juri Luik	Sven Mikser
2018	Australia	Scott John Morrison	David Littleproud	Marise Ann Payne	Julie Isabel Bishop
2018	Denmark	Kristian Jensen	Jakob Ellemann-Jensen	Claus Hjort Frederiksen	Anders Samuelsen
2018	Luxembourg	Pierre Gramegna	Fernand Etgen	Etienne Schneider	Jean Asselborn
2018	Belgium	Johan Van Overtveldt	Denis Ducarme	Steven Vandeput	Didier Reynders
2018	Cyprus	Charis Georgiadis	Kostas Kadis	Savvas Angelidis	Nikos Christodoulidis

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.

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 25% of male cabinet members are assigned to high prestige portfolios, while women are assigned only to 12% and more often to low profile ones instead. More information can be found on the WhoGov website.

Figure 1: Prestige of Offices of Female Cabinet Ministers

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

Figure 2: Female Cabinet Ministers