Gender, Race, and Office Holding in the United States

Do Gender Quotas Hurt Less Privileged Groups? Evidence from India

“…However, some women from disempowered groups suffer less from social disadvantages that might inhibit participation, such as poor education and incarceration, than men from the category. This may be one reason why women make up a higher proportion of African American elected officials than among white elected officials in the United States (Philpot and Walton 2007;Scola 2013). 2 Second, voters and parties may be more likely to favor women from disadvantaged groups than might be expected because social attitudes favor their participation more than men from those groups.…”

“…It has generally found either that both party and constituency quotas on one dimension increase or have no impact on the representation of disadvantaged groups on the other dimension (Cassan and Vandewalle 2017;Celis et al 2014;Folke, Freidenvall, and Rickne 2015;Jensenius 2016;Tan 2014), or focuses only on their effect on the representation of the intersectional category (Hughes 2011). This echoes work in American politics that shows female-minority intersectionality having non-negative effects on running for office after gender and race are accounted for (Bejarano 2013;Fraga et al 2008;Philpot and Walton 2007;Scola 2013).…”

Shattering the Marble Ceiling: A Research Note on Women‐Friendly State Legislative Districts*

“…Institutional and electoral variations, however, suggest that the relationship between political geography, candidate entry, and electoral success may vary in state legislatures (e.g., Darcy, Welch, and Clark, ; Hogan, ; Nechemias, ; Scola, , ). First, state legislatures’ institutional design often differs dramatically from the national legislature.…”

“…A substantial body of research has aimed to identify the factors that predict female candidates’ election to political office (e.g., Arceneaux, ; Bernstein, ; Darcy and Choike, ; Darcy, Welch, and Clark, ; Herrnson, Lay, and Stokes, ; Hogan, ; King, ; Matland and Brown, ; Moncrief and Thompson, ; Palmer and Simon, ; Rule, ; Sanbonmatsu, ; Scola, , ). These studies have posited many explanations—institutional, political, and demographic—for women's representation and underrepresentation in legislatures.…”

Collective Representation as a Mobilizer: Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Their Intersections at the State Level

“…There is some evidence that suggests that white women and women of color legislators serve in states with distinctly different characteristics (Scola 2013). For example, states with larger recruitment pools and liberal ideologies tend to have higher percentages of white female legislators, while states with larger minority populations have more women of color in office (Scola 2013). Putnam (2001) argues) and legislature composition; we thus include both in our models as control variables.…”