The Partisan Gap Among Women State Legislators

Abstract

Even a decade into the twenty-first century, women remain severely underrepresented in state legislatures. Much research has focused on the factors that help or hinder women's representation as a group, a focus that has masked the striking difference in women's progress within the two parties. The representation of Democratic women in state legislatures has continued to increase, while the number of Republican women has actually decreased. This article employs state-level data to explore why women legislators have such different levels of representation within the two parties. The central argument is that, as of the twenty-first century, the parties have distinctive cultures that hold consequences for their respective abilities to produce, recruit, and support women elected officials. Processes at both the elite and mass level work together to foster the representation of Democratic women and inhibit the representation of Republican women.