Why So Few (Republican) Women? Explaining the Partisan Imbalance of Women in the U.S. Congress

Thomsen, Danielle M.

doi:10.1111/lsq.12075

Cited by 106 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Female GOP senators have retained some discretion to pursue more centrist objectives (Swers 2013) but face significant obstacles to legislating on women's issues given their small numbers and conservative bases (Swers 2016). Among the small number of GOP women competing for office (Barnes, Branton, and Cassese 2016), electoral trends point toward increasingly conservative women candidates (Thomsen 2015) and increasingly conservative women attaining leadership positions within the GOP through the Tea Party (Deckman 2016), all of whom are likely to address these issues from a traditional standpoint on gender roles.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To date, most research about Republican women has focused on the elite level, investigating factors like party structure, activists and donors, conservative women's groups, and candidates for political office (Cooperman and Crowder-Meyer 2015;Thomsen 2015). Comparatively little research has considered the attitudes and issue preferences of Republican women in the electorate.…”

Section: Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

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American Party Women

Barnes

Cassese

2016

Political Research Quarterly

114

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ArticleTraditionally, women were more politically conservative than men. Yet, in the early 1980s, women began realigning, shifting to the left of men and reversing the gender gap in developed democracies across the globe (BoxSteffensmeier, De Boef, and Lin 2004;Inglehart and Norris 2003). Today, women in the United States are more likely to identify with the Democratic Party, vote for Democratic Party candidates, and hold liberal positions on social issues. Although scholars have devoted considerable attention to understanding the gender gap in public opinion, existing research focuses almost exclusively on average differences between men and womenemphasizing women's liberal tendencies and defining women's political identity almost entirely in liberal terms. While women's greater average liberalism is well established empirically, approximately one in four women identify with the Republican Party-a figure that translates into millions of American women who buck this liberal trend (Deckman 2016). Because existing research has focused on average differences between men and women, we know little about sources of heterogeneity among women.Does the gender gap extend to the Republican Party, with Republican women holding more liberal views than their male counterparts? To date, most research about Republican women has focused on the elite level, investigating factors like party structure, activists and donors, conservative women's groups, and candidates for political office (Cooperman and Crowder-Meyer 2015;Thomsen 2015). Comparatively little research has considered the attitudes and issue preferences of Republican women in the electorate. 1 In recent years, the United States has seen a rise in high-profile Republican women running for office and the development of a conservative women's movement (Schreiber 2008(Schreiber , 2014. The surge in conservative appeals to women, coupled with the increased salience of and polarization on "women's issues"-for example, the Mommy Wars and the Republican War on Women-requires that scholars revisit the conventional wisdom about women's political identities.Building on the burgeoning body of research on partisan sorting, we develop expectations regarding the intersection between gender and party. Theories of partisan sorting suggest that women and men sort themselves into the party that best represents their views-such that the AbstractResearch on the gender gap in American politics has focused on average differences between male and female voters. This has led to an underdeveloped understanding of sources of heterogeneity among women and, in particular, a poor understanding of the political preferences of Republican women. We argue that although theories of ideological sorting suggest gender gaps should exist primarily between political parties, gender socialization theories contend that critical differences lie at the intersection of gender and party such that gender differences likely persist within political parties. Using survey data from the 2012 American National Election ...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

American Party Women

Barnes

Cassese

2016

Political Research Quarterly

114

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“…This perception of moderation is likely not helpful in the current polarized environment, in which Republican primary voters and donors are among the most conservative (Abramowitz 2010;Francia et al 2003Francia et al , 2005Johnson 2010). Even though conservative women are more likely to run in the current environment (Thomsen 2015), these Republican women may need to raise and spend more money to prove their conservative credentials.…”

Section: A Theory Of the Impact Of Gender And Partisanship On Fundraimentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Aren't There More Republican Women in Congress? Gender, Partisanship, and Fundraising Support in the 2010 and 2012 Elections

Kitchens

Swers

2016

Pol & Gen

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S ince the early 1990s, women have slowly increased their presence in Congress. However, a gap has opened up such that the number of Democratic women far outpaces the number of Republican women. Indeed, in the 114th Congress, women constituted one-third of the Democratic caucus but less than 10% of the Republican caucus (Center for the American Woman and Politics 2015). To better understand the electoral environment women candidates face and how challenges vary for Republican and Democratic women, we focus on one of the most critical elements of a viable candidacy: fundraising. Previous studies of the impact of gender on fundraising analyze general election nominees but do not evaluate differences in the experience of all primary candidates. Moreover, past studies do not fully examine differences in sources and levels of financial support across all partisan and gender groups, including Democratic men and women and Republican men

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“…Some individuals, including women, minority-party members, and those excluded from governing coalitions, may be more likely to collaborate than others (Barnes 2016;Kanthak and Krause 2010;Swers 1998). Institutional characteristics can also accelerate or decelerate collaboration; for example, party control (Greene and O'Brien 2016;Osborn 2014) and polarization (Thomsen 2014(Thomsen , 2015 may reduce collaboration, while organizations like caucuses may increase collaborative work by their members (Miller 1990;Osborn 2012). Overall, the incentives to collaborate and the benefits derived from the act vary based on institutional and individual characteristics.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen: Women's Collaboration in US State Legislatures

Holman

Mahoney

2018

Legislative Studies Qtrly

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Collaboration plays a key role in crafting good public policy. We use a novel data set of over 140,000 pieces of legislation considered in US state legislatures in 2015 to examine the factors associated with women's collaboration with each other. We articulate a theory that women's collaboration arises from opportunity structures, dictated by an interaction of individual and institutional characteristics. Examining the effect of a combination of characteristics, we find support for an interactive view of institutions, where women's caucuses accelerate collaboration in Democratic‐controlled bodies and as the share of women increases. Collaboration between women also continues in the face of increased polarization in the presence of a caucus, but not absent one. Our findings speak to the long‐term consequences of electing women to political office, the importance of institutions and organizations in shaping legislative behavior, and the institutionalization of gender in politics.

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Why So Few (Republican) Women? Explaining the Partisan Imbalance of Women in the U.S. Congress

Cited by 106 publications

References 54 publications

American Party Women

American Party Women

Why Aren't There More Republican Women in Congress? Gender, Partisanship, and Fundraising Support in the 2010 and 2012 Elections

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen: Women's Collaboration in US State Legislatures

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