Wealthy Men Make Presidents: The Gendered Costs of Political Power

Research on electoral politics in Africa and beyond reveals a pattern of the wealthiest having the greatest chance at electability. In Nigeria, Africa’s largest democracy and the world’s largest Black nation, there is a significant socio-economic gap between the masses who vote and those who are voted into office, with an even larger gender gap in political representation. This article provides novel theoretical and empirical insights on how the costs associated with political engagement are gendered and are a function of resources. Privileging an intersectional feminist lens, the article considers how interlocking identities shape the costs of political behavior and access to political power. Evidence from in-depth fieldwork and a nationally representative survey experiment demonstrates how socioeconomic class and gender intersect to shape perceptions of political efficacy and people’s lived experiences navigating the political sphere. Most strikingly, the results show that gender does not that have a significant independent effect on perceptions of political efficacy; rather, gender works through distinct economic and social channels to create disparities in political representation. My findings further reveal that articulations of cost in terms of time, finances, and risks shape gendered and class expectations around political behavior. Ultimately, the research highlights how class and gender intersect to vary the costs associated with political participation and the resources needed to pay the price of politics.