Illinois' Most Politically Corrupt Women of the 21st Century

We use the term “old boys network” as shorthand for the culture that breeds political corruption. A new study from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute contends the term is gender-inaccurate.

“Unsupervised, Ensnared, Relational, and Private: A Typology of Illinois’ Corrupt Women” takes a look at the women of Illinois who have been convicted for abusing their official powers. It challenges the notion that “female public officials have a deterrent effect on corruption” and examines the methods and motivations most common among female officials who have been convicted.

Author Ryan Ceresola finds four common themes in the female officials and their crimes.

1. Accesses public resources with little to no supervision
2. Collaborates with others in some misdeed
3. Commits corrupt acts with family members, specifically spouses or boyfriends
4. Uses corrupt gains for personal, rather than career-advancing, reasons.

With this analysis, I suggest that simply changing the gendered composition of a political body will not prevent corruption, and in fact, may encourage different types of corruption such as nepotism or embezzlement used for personal reasons. Instead, I argue that:

1. Greater representations of women in political bodies will have little to no effect on reducing overall systemic corruption, without a change to the system itself.
2. Political bodies in Illinois and elsewhere should ensure that their government officials are supervised, and are independently audited by outside investigative agencies.
3. A series of checks and balances should be put into place to discover corruption earlier and more often, especially in organizations where public money is transferred between accounts.

With that in mind, here is a look at 20 of the most recent cases involving women who were part of the culture of political corruption in Illinois.

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