1. POLS 5810 14 March 2013 Libby Anaya
Women in Legislatures
Although women’s participation in government has increased over the past few decades, Dolan et al. state
that as of 2010, women held less than 20% of seats in both the House and the Senate and less that 25% of seats in
state legislatures. They also show that the US is lagging behind other democracies in terms of women’s
participation (Dolan 2011, 228). They argue that this is the result of the American electoral structure, which
favors incumbents and narrow representation from single-member districts. Their argument is supported by the
fact that many European democracies have multi-member districts and far greater representation of women in
their governments. Finally, they discuss the impact of women within legislatures, focusing on policy choices,
specifically with regards to children and family as well as any constituent-driven policy goals.
Thomas and Welch (1991) also noted many of these ideas in their work, focusing on state legislatures.
They focused their attention on how the growing number on women in legislatures has impacted the behavior of
women in politics. The study was based on self-reported data by legislators in 12 states, who were asked about
their policy preferences and priorities as elected officials and about their individual participation at each level of
policy making. As with all research that utilizes self-reporting, the data must be interpreted with the
understanding that this form of research is subject to errors due to the fact that people are motivated to respond
falsely. Even so, Thomas and Welch found support for their hypothesis that women are more likely to support
women’s issues now that they were 15 years ago, with the explanation that due to growing numbers, they are
more able to impact policy. In addition, they find that women and men are very similar in their levels of
participation. There were significant gender differences when it came to committee membership, but Thomas and
Welch discuss that this is not due to discriminative assignments, but based on women’s interests and priority
issue areas, thus supporting their hypothesis.
Michele Swers (1998) also focuses her research on the impact of women on policy making. More
specifically, she tests the hypothesis that a growing number of women in the US Congress has led to more
support of women’s issues. Swers bases her research on voting records of members of the House of
Representatives. She accounts for influences that might contribute to voting behavior, such as party identification

2. POLS 5810 14 March 2013 Libby Anaya
and other personal characteristics. The results of the study show that gender is an important factor when the
policy in question is considered to be a woman’s issue. Other research has shown that the most accurate way to
predict voting behavior in Congress is party, and Swers’ results support this finding in general, as she shows that
when issues areas outside the realm of women’s issues are considered, gender does not influence behavior to the
same extent. Sarah Poggione (2005) also addresses gender influence, but argues that due to the fact that
researchers must also account for the preferences of the representative’s constituents and the extent to which
gender influences a legislator. She finds some support for these external variables, but also finds support for
previous literature which chows that women tend to be more liberal in their legislating than men.
Barrett (1995) focuses on state legislatures; however she adds the variable of race. Barrett finds that there
are differences that exist between white women and African American women in state legislatures. For example,
she discusses the fact that the policy preferences of African American women in politics are much more cohesive
than those of white women. Barrett’s theory cites research that has focused on differences between the policy
preferences of white men versus African American men in legislature. Barrett’s sample consisted of the 106 black
women serving in state legislatures in 1992. This sample is problematic for a number of reasons. First, all of the
women were Democrats. Swers (1998) and others have shown the importance of partisanship over gender on
many issues, so Barrett’s inability to account for party ID is troublesome. In addition to this, the legislatures with
black women serving during this time were concentrated in specific areas of the country- a factor that might also
influence policy preferences.
In general, the unifying theme of these writings is that gender does influence policy making. Whether this
is in regards to participation levels in committee, leadership, policy preferences, authoring legislation, voting, or
constituent work, the influence of gender on women in legislatures impacts the amount and quality of women’s
issue legislation, both on the state and national level. Dolan et al. cited Jeannette Rankin in their writing with a
statement about the dismal amount of funding for studying needs of children in the US compared with other
issues like agriculture, or more specifically “hog fodder” (Dolan 2011, 234). The changes that have occurred with
regards to education, welfare and health care in the past few decades are the result of the growing number of
women in legislature, who understand the needs of children and families.

3. POLS 5810 14 March 2013 Libby Anaya