Cabinets, ministers, and gender, Annesley, Claire (professor And Head Of Politics, Professor And Head Of Politics, University Of Sussex) Beckwith, Karen (flora Stone Mather Professor

Political actors use their agency to interpret and exploit ambiguity in rules to deviate from past practices of appointing mostly men. When they do so, they create different opportunities for men and women to be selected, explaining why some democracies have appointed more women to cabinet than
others. Importantly, this dynamic produces new rules about womens inclusion and, as this book explains, the emergence of a concrete floor, defined as a minimum number of women who must be appointed to a cabinet to ensure its legitimacy.