Are women less corrupt than men?

By Zechariah Manyok Biar

July 7, 2010 — Three months ago when I was still in the United States, I posted a question on my facebook on why women are less corrupt than men. The careful and sophisticated minds that debated the question defeated my thoughts that women were less corrupt than men. Even though those who defeated me encouraged me to go ahead and write the article, I refused to write it on the ground that I had less empirical support to my question. However, Minister Awut Deng who inspired my first question still impresses me in her intention to fight corruption in South Sudan. Now I am going to ask the defeated question again, even though I cannot support it. Are women less corrupt than men?

The answer to this question might be controversial. Some theories argue that women are less corrupt than men because they care about their images more than men do. Women pay attention to what others think about them, but men think about how powerful others perceive them to be. These theories may be true or not true. No literature supports the idea that women are less corrupt than men. But when you looked at the government of Rwanda (which is dominated by women) and its performance, you would not avoid asking the above question.

In South Sudan, women have said things against corruption since the formation of the government of South Sudan, even when they sometimes apologize for the statement they made. I do not want to be specific here. But one may argue that men in South Sudan seem to acknowledge that women can fight corruption better than men can. For example, we know that the Chairperson of the Anti Corruption Commission is a woman.

However, those who are not convinced that women are less corrupt than men would argue that the results of the Anti Corruption Commission Chairperson’s fight against corruption have not yet been seen. They would further argue that the Anti Corruption Commission Chairperson might also be corrupt because she awarded herself and the members of her commission higher salaries. That argument could be true, but we must also remember that the work of Anti Corruption Commission Chairperson is to expose corrupt officials and the court takes over from where she left off. Should we blame her that nobody has been convicted for corruption in South Sudan? I do not think so. We know who controls legal system, not women.

Minister Awut is known for her stance against corruption. Recently, the media reported her as saying: “You do not have to unnecessarily praise individual officials whose performance and records show the contrary. Even though you cover them with praises, still you cannot change their characters notwithstanding diplomatic efforts. They must be exposed because South Sudan has a lot of people ready with required qualifications and skills to delightfully serve to the expectations of the region.” Is this statement not something to appreciate? I think it is.

However, I do not mean to say that everybody who is economically well-off is embezzling government funds. It would be mistaken to arrive at that conclusion without good reasons for doing so. Philosophers like John Rawls have already observed that you can bring the runners to the same level, but still have some of them end up running faster than others. People might be given equal salaries, but some may manage their money better than others. Some may drink their salaries to the point where they forget their children, but others can use their salaries to build good houses for themselves. So, being poor is not an indicator that one is not corrupt and being rich is not always the result of corruption.

But what fascinates me about Minister Awut’s statement is that she seems to mean what she is saying against corrupt officials when she said that praising corrupt officials negatively contributes to embezzlement of public resources. Remember she has been a Minister over the last five years and she has not been accused of corruption. I cannot even think of a woman accused of corruption in Juba or in all South Sudan ten states, apart from Dr. Josephine Lagu who is, in fact, acquitted by the court. But a lot of men have been removed in South Sudan over the last five years because of corruption.

If you are fascinated by the question of why women seem to be less corrupt than men, then talk about it and bring it to the attention of our government to fund some researchers to look into it. If it is proven true by researchers that women are less corrupt than men, then I would suggest that women be given fifty percent in our government.

Controversial, eh? Maybe. It may cause uneasiness in some people, I know. But one must ask himself/herself why it should not be a good idea to have a number of qualified women equal that of men in our government?

Zechariah Manyok Biar, BA, Edu., MACM, MSSW. He can be reached at [email protected]