Relationship between Corruption and Gender: A Systematic Review

Although gender discussions have increased in researches about corruption since the beginning of the 21st century, this issue -- unlike other fields of corruption -- has not been able to attract much attention. Most of these studies hold that in general women commit less corruption than men, however, they were not able to find a common reason for this, and from inherent purity of women to interference of democratic institutions have been considered as reasons for low corruption among women. This research shows us that these studies have been carried out based on two approaches: “agency-based”, which tries to understand what role women can have in reducing corruption, and “victim-based”, which intends to understand the effects of corruption on women. While adopting the first approach has cast a strong shadow on existing researches, few studies have been allocated to victim-based approach to women. In agency-based approach, two tendencies have equally led the studies. This book shares these ideas via a systematic review of the various papers on gender and corruption and can be helpful for people and scholars who want to attain a basic information in this field.

Samaneh Khademi studied sociology in Iran and graduated in 2008. She has been teaching sociology in PayamNoor University for more than 8 years. As an feminist activist and social researcher, her interested field of study is concentrated on gender equality, however she has followed her studies in corruption issue and gender in recently years.