Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. The two-week OxTalks freeze period starts on Monday 2nd March. During this time, there will be no facility to publish or edit events. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period. Once Oxford Events launches, you will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
Where loyalty drives political survival, why do women praise autocrats more than men? Extensive research demonstrates the centrality of loyalty for women’s political advancement, yet how women rhetorically signal this loyalty remains underexplored. I argue that sycophantic appeals offer a gendered pathway to power in conservative authoritarian contexts. Excessive praise enables women to exhibit loyalty while conforming to feminine ideals of social warmth and deference, mitigating backlash where their political presence challenges prevailing gender expectations. Using natural language processing on speeches from Turkey’s Grand National Assembly from 2015 to 2023, I find that women in the ruling party are more likely than men to profess loyalty to autocrats and employ gender-congruent praise emphasizing their compassion. This strategy yields tangible rewards, with women who adopt such praise securing better list positions and reelection. These findings reveal how gender shapes expressions of loyalty and their political returns, illuminating gendered pathways to power under authoritarian rule.
