In 2001, the World Bank report Engendering Development through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources, and Voice suggested that societies where women enjoy greater participation in public life have "cleaner" businesses and governments. Cross-national comparisons showed that the higher the number of women in parliaments or the private sector, the lower the level of corruption. While depicting these findings as merely suggestive, Engendering Development called for "having more women in politics and in the labor force–since they could be an effective force for good government and business trust."

Although this argument was backed by statistical associations, it did not take into account an alternative explanation. A 2003 study pitted indicators of the 'fair sex' hypothesis (i.e., women in parliament, women in ministerial positions, and women in sub-ministerial positions) against measures of liberal democracy (i.e., rule of law, press freedom, and elections) for a sample of 99 countries. Results showed that both women in government and liberal democracy were significantly and inversely related to corruption when they were isolated from each other. But when put into the same model, the effects of women's political presence on corruption became insignificant, whereas liberal institutions remained very powerful predictors of low corruption. Freedom of the press showed the strongest influence on corruption, followed by the rule of law. The gender–corruption link was refuted in this test as a largely spurious relationship, and the liberal democracy hypothesis received very strong empirical support.

In other words, more women in politics are not the cause of low corruption, but rather, democratic and transparent politics is correlated with low corruption, and the two create an enabling environment for more women to participate in politics. In a society characterized by free elections, rule of law, and separation of powers, the protection of basic liberties facilitates women's entry into government. At the same time, more competitive and transparent politics minimizes opportunities for corruption.

To elect or appoint more women to leadership positions is a noble and just goal in itself, but would not on its own "clean up" government. Effective checks and balances on power are needed, whatever the gender of politicians.