Corruption and gender: Women and men affected differently by corruption, but no evidence women or men are less corruptible

Corruption disproportionately affects vulnerable populations and hits the poor the hardest, especially women, who represent a higher share of the world's poor. In society, gender commonly delineates divisions of labour, control over resources and decision-making, from the domestic sphere up to the top echelons of government. While some academic studies have shown some correlation between the proportion of women in positions of power and measures of corruption, it does not necessarily follow that a higher level of participation by women in public life would lead to lower levels of corruption. To ensure that policymaking is based on empirical data, more research is needed. There is no concrete evidence, for example, that women are either more or less corrupt than men.