Female lobbyists are more likely to gain access to meetings with policymakers, regardless of the policymaker's gender, indicating gender is used strategically by interest groups to improve their influence, finds a new UCL led study.
For the study, published in Research & Politics, researchers from UCL Political Science, King's College London, and Stockholm University analysed the links between lobbyists' access to legislators within the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union (EU).
The findings showed that having a female lobbyist increases the likelihood of securing a meeting with a legislator by 35% compared to when the lobbyist is male.
"Lead author, Professor David Coen (UCL Political Science) said: "Much attention has been paid to understanding gender inequality within government, but this study is the first comprehensive analysis of how gender effects lobbyists' access to government, legislators, and policy makers"
For the study, the researchers cross-referenced data from the EU's Joint Transparency Register (the EU's mandatory lobbying register) with a Transparency International dataset of over 4,000 meetings held between policymakers and interest groups in the European Commission between November 2014 and February 2021.
They then analysed the individual characteristics of the lobbyists and the policymakers and used machine learning software to predict the individual's gender based on their first name. The software draws on a database of first names and assigns a probability to its own prediction.
The analysis also found that interest groups and policymakers have a notable mismatch in the supply and demand of gender diversity within their teams.
For example, the interest groups tended to enlist their female lobbyists when targeting female policymakers, with female dominated EU departments twice as likely to be lobbied by a female lobbyist compared to a male dominated department.
However, the policymakers were more receptive to female lobbyists regardless of their own gender representation.
Dr Alexander Katsaitis (Stockholm University) said: "Understanding who has the ear of government policymakers, and how they may be adapting their personnel to strengthen their influence, is an important part of understanding modern democracies."
Dr Matia Vannoni (King's College London) added: "Although this study focuses on the European Commission, we believe these findings could be applied to lobbyists and legislators in developed democracies across the world and we are currently looking more broadly at lobbying codes of conduct, revolving doors and transparency registers."
