Previous research on female representatives and their influence on policy has mostly focused on so-called women's issues such as childcare, parental leave, and health care spending. However, studies have shown that women are also more concerned about climate change, which implies that female representation might influence the implementation of climate policies. This question is, however, largely unexplored.

This begs the question whether female politicians have a positive impact on climate change policies. This paper addresses this gap at the level of executive bodies of governments. We investigate empirically how female representation at the executive level influences the implementation of climate change policies. We use newly released panel data on members of cabinets over time to measure female representation, and measures of environmental performance of countries over time to examine how female ministers influence agenda setting, policies and spending on climate issues. In line with findings in earlier research on female parliamentarians in the legislative, and research of the executive body on health spending, I expect to find a positive effect of female ministers on climate performance of a country.