Women, Partisanship, and the Congress

Are Female House Members Still More Liberal in a Polarized Era? The Conditional Nature of the Relationship Between Descriptive and Substantive Representation

“…The most common measure utilized over the past decade has been Poole and Rosenthal's (1997) DW-NOMINATE scores. 4 Argument supports that patterns of voting on women's issues can best be explained by multiple dimensions rather than just one (Evans 2005;Norton 1999). After all, NOMINATE scores include procedural votes not explicitly related to the substantive representation women.…”

“…Most of the support for the proposition emanates from studies of Congressional voting in the 1970s through the early 1990s that found women were generally more liberal than their male colleagues (Burrell 1994;Clark 1998;Frankovic 1977;Leader 1977;Vega and Firestone 1995;Welch 1985). In addition, other studies limited specifically to voting patterns on women's issues have found that gender is a significant indicator of taking the liberal position as well, especially as it applies to female Republicans (Burrell 1994;Dodson 2006;Dolan 1997;Evans 2005;Leader 1977;Oldmixon 2002;Swers 1998Swers , 2002Tatalovich and Schier 1993). 10 However, many scholars have failed to unearth any significant link between gender status and liberalism using Poole and Rosenthal's DW-NOMINATE scores as the dependent variable (McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal 1997;Schwindt-Bayer and Corbetta 2004).…”

“…Most, but not all, of the research in this field has shown that women legislators tend to display greater liberalism in terms of policy representation (Boles and Scheurer 2007;Burrell 1994;Epstein, Niemi, and Powell 2005;Evans 2005;Swers 1998 and. However, recent changes in the broader political system at the national level raise significant questions concerning whether greater numbers of women in office makes a substantive difference in the legislative process in the fashion these previous studies have documented.…”

“…However, recent changes in the broader political system at the national level raise significant questions concerning whether greater numbers of women in office makes a substantive difference in the legislative process in the fashion these previous studies have documented. Following the 1994 elections, a new collection of conservative Republican women from the South and West entered the House taking many positions anathema to traditional feminist causes (Dodson 2005(Dodson , 2006Evans 2005;Gertzog 2004;Swers 2002;Swers and Larson 2005) 2 Though many women in the House saw these newcomers as "ideological outliers," their ranks have only continued to expand (Carroll 2002, 64). Their beliefs on issues such as taxes, national security, abortion and others are more in line with the GOP mainstream than Republican women in previous eras.…”

Gender and Roll Call Voting Behavior in Congress: A Cross-Chamber Analysis

“…Republican women have long been at odds with their party on key issues that have defined the modern feminist movement. A position which has driven their voting behavior leftward, according to numerous studies that have examined the subject (Boles and Scheurer 2007;Burrell 1994;Evans 2005;Frederick 2009Frederick , 2010Swers 1998Swers , 2002Tatalovich and Schier 1993). While the parties have become highly polarized around much of this agenda some female Republicans have not consistently embraced the party line on these questions.…”