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This paper examines the function of gender in print political advertisements distributed during two 2002 US Senate races involving women candidates. In addition to examining the ads produced by the candidates, this paper also analyzes gender messages in the ads distributed by political parties and interest groups involved in the races. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the link between substantive and descriptive representation in the promotion of women's issues and supports the latter as a sufficient means of supporting effective policy advocacy. Women's issues like domestic violence, women's health, and economic empowerment programs require government funding to succeed and are lobbied for by groups that must maximize their influence while minimizing their resource expenditures. Besides being affected by the social context, women's groups are dependent on their ability to convince political representatives to support their policy preferences. Women in political office seem the obvious choice for such groups though their willingness to diverge significantly from their male counterparts, in ideology and in action, is debatable. This study, using data on the number of requests made by women's groups to members of the 111th House of Representatives, examines this interrelationship between descriptive and substantive representation. Descriptive representation entails questions regarding women's unique status in political bodies whereas substantive representation entails their distinctive contribution to the female constituency. We provide a framework for understanding the relationships that determine congressional funding for women's causes. Here, the explanatory power of a representative's party identification, social policy attitudes, and institutional standing in Congress do not appear as important in determining a group's likelihood of requesting funds for women's programs as does shared gender. This result is further elaborated on to show that women's groups efficiently and rationally choose to expend their time and effort on representatives that are most likely to push for their funding. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing numbers of women in political office and women running for political office has been shown to increase political discussion among women and young women. These studies point to the cues that women in political leadership have on women in society as an encouragement that female political participation is legitimate (Atkeson, 2003) (Wolbrecht & Campbell, 2007). These analyses have focused more directly on the United States and Europe. A more encompassing cross-national analysis is needed to examine the connection between women in political positions and political participation of women in society. A large cross-national study that examines the connection between the female political representation and women's political participation will show whether there is an important need in advanced states that still lack descriptive representation to develop policies that increase political participation among women. This paper intends to build upon the work of Wolbrecht and Campbell (2007) by doing a cross-national analysis of the relationship between political participation by women and the percentage of women in the national legislatures. The data for this analysis will come from political participation data for close to 40 countries from diverse political, cultural, and economic backgrounds. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased numbers of women in political office and women running for political office have been shown to be connected to more political discussion among women and young women. These studies point to the cues that women in political leadership have on women in society as an encouragement that female political participation is legitimate (Atkeson, 2003) (Wolbrecht & Campbell, 2007). These analyses have focused more directly on the United States and Europe. A more encompassing cross-national analysis is needed to examine the connection between women in political positions and political discussion among women. A large cross-national study that examines the connection between female political discussion and female political representation will be able to show whether the connections found in the United States and Europe are the same throughout different political and cultural contexts. This paper intends to build upon the work of Wolbrecht and Campbell (2007) by doing a cross-national analysis of the relationship between political discussion in society among women and the percentage of women in the national legislatures. The data for this analysis will use a set of 47 countries from diverse political, cultural, and economic backgrounds. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents research which assessed the political geography of Women Friendly Congressional Districts in the U.S. from 1972 to 2000. Background of the development of the association; Analysis of the demographic tradition in the study of elections and representation; Discussion of the characteristics of Congressional districts.

Presents research which examined the role of women political consultants in the U.S. Congressional campaigns. Impact of women political consultants on the outcome of campaigns; Assessment of the political participation of elite women; Analysis of the existence of gender gap in U.S. politics.

Discusses the impact of descriptive representation on women's political engagement. Aspects of the legislative behavior of female politicians in the U.S.; Significance of changes in women's descriptive or numerical representation in politics to the country's political system; Factors which motivate women to pursue administrative positions in public offices.

Assesses the influence of gender on the voting behavior of the U.S. Supreme Court in gender-based claims. Perceptions about women public officials; Definition of gender-based claims; Factors that measure the extent to which gender influences the decision making process of the court; Difference of the voting behavior of male justices and female justices.

Examines the causes for the relatively poor showing of women political candidates in the U.S. congressional elections in 2002. Examination of the types of seats women contested; Effects of the political climate on the candidacy of women; Communication of women candidates with voters.

This paper examines the factors that shape women's evolving political behavior. While most of the extant research on women in politics has focused on the impact of sex as a political variable, this paper seeks to explain the growing importance of party identification on the political behavior of female elected officials. Building on previous research that suggests that Democratic men may be more likely than Republican women to support pro-feminist/women's issues, this research seeks to examine the effect of party on the political behavior of women in office. By using longitudinal data on female elected officials, this paper addresses whether marked differences exists between the responsiveness of Democratic and Republican women to the interests of their political parties concerning issues traditionally defined as important to women. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leslie Bracy and Kate CarneyUniversity of OklahomaAbstractThe number of women serving in Congress has steadily increased over the last two decades. Many observers might expect a significant change in policy outputs concerning issues traditionally deemed important to women. Women legislators, regardless of Congressional district, are often viewed as "surrogate representatives" (Mansbridge 1999) of women's issues in any lawmaking body. The Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues (CCWI) provides a venue through which women legislators may formulate public policy dealing with women's issues and discuss the impact key pieces of legislation may have on women. While the differences between male and female legislators and the differences between parties has been studied, we found the question of differences between Republican and Democratic women in regards to their behavior and attention to women's issues within the CCWI is lacking in the current literature. This paper explores the extent to which women who are members of the CCWI consistently co-sponsor legislation and vote with the preferred position of the CCWI. Specifically, we analyze the votes of women in the caucus to determine the level of cohesion with caucus priorities based on roll-call voting behavior from 1980 to 2005. We will also examine the cohesion levels of women in terms of their co-sponsorship of legislation deemed important by the caucus from 1980 - 2005. It is important that we include both roll-call votes and co-sponsorship because not all of the priority legislation from the CCWI will receive a floor vote. We will utilize a time-series analysis of co-sponsorship and roll-call votes of bills deemed important of the CCWI to determine if there are substantive policy differences between Republican and Democratic women in terms of their voting and co-sponsorship behavior. This project arose out of questions related to two separate research papers. The first is an analysis done by Leslie Bracy on the voting behavior of women legislators on policy issues identified by a women's interest group from 1985 - 2005. Her analysis indicated a strong level of cohesion among women legislators until 1994. It also builds upon a work by Kate Carney and Dr. Cindy Simon Rosenthal on the extent to which a caucus may influence the co-sponsorship behavior of their individual members. They found that caucus influence within the CCWI was strong because of the nature of its membership and legislative agenda. The question remains, does the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues serve to unite women of both parties on the CCWI legislative agenda or do increased partisanship divide Republican and Democratic women within the caucus? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the objectives of the "Women and Politics" course is to "explore historical and contemporary women's political issues and the ways in which women have articulated key issues globally, mobilized and empowered themselves along with their communities to address those issues." Historically, I have often placed greater emphasis on the political experiences and activism of black women in the United States. Students taking this course have consistently been successful in connecting their lives and issues to those of the female activists studied throughout the semester. Along with this observation came the question of the degree to which students could connect not only their lives to those of black female activists, but also the degree to which they could connect political issues, themes, solutions to those of other female activists around the world. This paper explores this question and looks at the challenges and opportunities of using autobiographies and memoirs in a Women and Politics course as a way to connect students to the larger global conversations that are shaping the political experiences of women and their particular communities around the world. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite witnessing a slow and steady increase in the numbers of women serving in virtually all executive government positions across the country, we know little about the ways in which these women exert influence in national governance. Women who serve in presidential cabinets are particularly well positioned to shape the contours of public policy like few other executives in the country. Nonetheless, presidential scholars and those who study women and politics have left relatively unexplored the question of how media coverage may shape these women's ability to contribute to policymaking. This project forges new ground by examining a select group of male and female cabinet secretaries from the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. We conduct content analysis of media stories to estimate whether or not gender shapes the media coverage received by cabinet secretaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the promotion of women to national high courts in a sample of European nations from 1970 to 2008. While research in the United States often examines the effect of various selection/retention methods on the number of women on high courts, the conclusions are ambiguous. We believe that while different selection mechanisms may affect the number of women on courts, we also believe that political parties may play an under recognized role in the advancement of women. In particular, political parties that have instituted gender quotas for legislative office may also help advance the promotion of women. In our research, we analyze the relationship between gender quota policies and the number of women appointed to the bench while also accounting for how judges are recruited and selected for office. Our sample includes ten European nations that vary in the method of judicial selection and the use of gender quotas. We believe our results will shed insights into the question of how to create more representative judicial institutions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan all candidates are said to face three main obstaclesâ??jiban (building a constituency), kanban (the need for publicity), and kaban (money). How do female candidates challenge these obstacles and do they face any additional obstacles such as the cultural expectation to be a "good wife and wise mother" that inhibit their ability to run for office? Moreover, are the constraints female candidates face in Japan unique or do women in other countries face similar constraints? This paper addresses these questions by developing a comparison of the institutional and cultural obstacles female candidates face when running for national office in Japan and United States. It also seeks to understand how these obstacles are challenged by female candidates and organizations that support female candidates in each country. This investigation reveals that the obstacles facing female candidates in both countries are quite similar. Moreover, a comparison of campaign organizations such as WINWIN and the Ichikawa Fusae Foundation in Japan and EMILY's List, the Wish List and the Woman's Campaign Fund in the United States illuminates several similar strategies for getting women elected at both the national and local levels. Overall, the campaign organizations in the United States have been more successful due to their ability to connect contributions to specific policy issues. In Japan such campaign organizations face the norm against donating money; these organizations also do not have a unifying ideological commitment other than the broad notion of gender equality. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For much of 2008, the country was transfixed by the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton. Many thought that she would serve as inspiration for other women to run for political office. So how did 2008 shake out in terms of women running for Congress? Our paper will provide an overview of the women running in House primary and general elections. In addition to placing the overall number of candidates into historical context, we will explore the political geography of their success. Just as the demographic profile of a congressional district can make it more or less likely to elect a Republican or Democrat, the demographic profile can also make it more or less likely to elect a woman, or "women friendly." Using our index of women-friendliness, we look at the districts where women ran, where they were successful and where they were not. To conclude, we assess all 435 House districts and predict where women are the most likely to win in 2010. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we expand the existing research on symbolic representation by examining simultaneously the influence of race and gender on political engagement. Using ANES data from 1990 to 2004, we test whether black female empowerment positively influences a broad range of political attitudes and behaviors: political interest, knowledge, trust, efficacy, discussion, proselytizing, and voting. While we expect to find a strong correlation between black female empowerment and African American political participation, we anticipate that the empowering effect black female candidates and officeholders will be strongest for African American women in the electorate. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political elite in the United States have undergone a substantive transformation over the last forty years. In 1968, women comprised 13% of the Democratic and 18% of the Republican delegates at the national conventions. By 2004, numeric parity had essentially been achieved. After the 1972 conventions, a number studies provided insight into how men and women delegates differed in terms of socioeconomic factors and approach to politics. However, limited contemporary work has been executed to see if there are still substantive differences between male and female delegates. Understanding these potential differences is important as party activists are often recruited as candidates. If elite women have developed a more professional approach to politics then they are more likely to be successful and win elections.In this paper, I propose to investigate how women activists have changed since 1972. My primary focus will be to determine if elite women are now on par with elite men in terms of having the skills and ambition needed to successfully run for higher office. Using seven National Convention Delegate Studies (from 1972 to 2004), I will address the following: 1. Have the socioeconomic differences (i.e. education, profession and income) between men and women delegates narrowed since 1972?2. How have men and women delegates political styles (i.e. ambition, motivation, and approach to politics) changed since 1972?3.How do contemporary Republican and Democratic women differ in terms of socioeconomic factors and political style? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservative women have been a formidable force in the political spectrum for several decades, yet scholars have not dedicated time to their efforts. Instead, "women in politics" research has largely focused on the liberal feminist movement, tracing the goals, members, and successes of a movement which has claimed to speak for women, but which conservative women reject. But contrary to conventional wisdom, conservative women have not remained silent; rather they have formed their own counter movement, engaging liberal feminist women in a battle over "women's interests" by reframing the idea of gender consciousness to include a wider range of ideological positions. In so doing the conservative women's movement has overcome some of the obstacles that other New Right groups have faced while simultaneously expanding our definition of what it means to be a politicized woman in American politics.The conservative women's movement has often been identified as a part of the Christian Right. However, there are other conservative women's groups that have formed, such as the Independent Women's Forum (IWF) based on economic rather than social issues. In this paper, we examine three hypotheses. First, alongside the expanding success of conservative women's organizations, we expect to find that there is a substantial group of conservative women in the electorate. Next, we expect to see that this group is composed of women with diverse policy positions, especially when compared on economic and social issues. Finally, we expect to find that conservative women react comparatively negatively to feminists, as they do not feel represented by this "women's movement." We use the American National Election Studies to quantatatively examine conservative women, building on the foundations of several influential scholars who have qualitatively insisted that these women are diverse and worthy of our attention (such as Klatch 1987).Women's participation in politics can no longer be explained solely by understanding feminism; rather, scholars must reframe the discussion about women's political behavior. Conservative women and feminist women should be understood as counterparts; neither can be ignored if we truly wish to understand the interaction between gender and American politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role that representation plays can be important in the substantive and the symbolic representation of women in a country. While in the United States the actual percentage of female representatives is low, with only about 17% their influence on women in society can be seen in two ways. Many studies have looked at the role that increasing female representation has on increasing women friendly policies in a society. Beyond this substantive role that women legislators may have, women in power may also influence the ideas in society concerning traditional roles and feeling concerning equality. With increased female representation attitudes concerning equality could be increased due to women being seen in these powerful political roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the success that women have recently enjoyed in American politics, issues of gender matters have surfaced in the evaluation of political candidates. Previous research has provided evidence that supports ideas that gender stereotypes have shaped perceptions of a candidate's competency. There is not significant extant literature that considers the role of gender perceptions on voters' evaluations of candidates. This research explores the interrelationships between gender and candidate evaluations by the electorate. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The feminist movement within the United States has evolved over the past century. As women have gained more rights and have continued to advance in society the feminist agenda has continued to evolve as well, so much so that both feminist scholars and activists have made it a point to distinguish between agendas, often referring to reform focused on institutional barriers as first wave feminism and reform focused on societal barriers as second wave feminism (and now there is discussion of a third wave). This study will investigate the evolution of empirical measures used to capture public opinion towards feminism, within the context of feminist theory, utilizing data obtained from the ANES from 1948 to 2008. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on women in politics has focused primarily on state legislatures and the U.S. Congress. Less is known about the backgrounds, motivations, and resources of women in local politics, particularly in rural areas. What draws these women into office at the local level? Do women in local politics confront the same barriers that women face at the state level and/or nationally? Do rural politics produce unique issues that women must address? A barrier to quantitative research on this topic has been the limited number of women serving in elective office in rural areas. This study, however, creates a larger database by examining the entire Southwest region within Virginia, including twenty-six counties and eleven cities. By surveying these women, more can be learned about the role that political socialization and family play in the decision to run for office; the cultural attitudes that may present barriers to women running for office; the role of political parties in recruiting women to run for local office; the role that local office plays as a breeding ground for candidates to run for higher office; and the different issues, styles of leadership, and goals that women may bring to the table. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the obstructionism during the proceedings in the U.S. Congress and also discusses its role in the actions and outcomes of the U.S. legislative bodies. It informs that in the U.S. Congress involvement of female legislators has been increased significantly but their behavior and policy for presenting their agenda is not different from their male counterparts.

There are two related features of the midterm elections of 1994 and 2006. Both campaigns were characterized as referenda on the performance of the incumbent president. Both elections featured substantial changes in the partisan distribution of seats (a 52 seat loss for the Democrats in 1994, a 30 seat loss for Republicans in 2006) as well as a switch in party control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The question which animates our analysis is whether there is a gender-based component in such "national tides" and the accompanying partisan turnover. We build upon our prior research on women and elections to the U.S. House of Representatives to examine the extent to which the vote and seat loss suffered by the Democrats in 1994 and the Republicans in 2006 was a function of the sex of the incumbents and the woman-friendliness of the congressional district. In other words, do these national tides have a different impact on the success of male and female candidates? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the increasing Latino population in the United States, more attention is turning to the extent to which Latinos are represented in legislative institutions. This article examines the conditions under which Latinas are elected to Congress and state legislatures throughout the United States. In particular, this article finds that Latinas have benefited from elite driven methods, features of the electoral system, and the discretion to use or not use their Latino surnames dependent on electoral context. Like all other legislators, once in office, Latinas are especially concerned with representing their districts and all of their constituents, regardless of background. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, scholars have found that women's underrepresentation in political office in the U.S. is in large part due to women's unwillingness to run for public office. I hypothesize that women's unwillingness to run is based in part on self-presentational concerns. In politics, image matters. A politician must convey competency, credibility, assertiveness, and attentiveness. The primary means by which impressions are conveyed by politicians is through the media. To the extent that women are aware of the scrutiny female politicians are subjected to by the press, they have to consider their self-presentational goals and abilities (do they feel comfortable under such scrutiny) to a greater extent than do men. I have conducted a pilot study investigating the relationship between self-presentational goals and political ambition with a survey of 268 college students (Smith 2006). The results of the pilot study are suggestive that self-presentational concerns matter for young women more than for young men in their decision to consider seeking public office. In this study, I administer a similar survey to approximately 2000 students at eight geographically-dispersed universities throughout the United States to examine how self-presentational goals and socialization interact to influence young women's political ambition. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a great deal of research finds that women elected officials hold more liberal preferences and act differently than their male colleagues (see e.g., Bratton and Haynie 1999; Carey, Niemi, and Powell 1998; Poggione 2004; Reingold 2000), relatively little work examines the conditions which strengthen or weaken the effect of gender on legislators' attitudes and behaviors. I argue that the influence of gender on legislators' policy preferences and legislative behavior is conditioned by legislators' prospects for reelection. I expect that the effect of gender will be weaker among more electorally vulnerable legislators and stronger among more secure legislators. Electoral vulnerability may narrow gender differences for two reasons. First, women legislators may have less leeway to represent women's interests when they face an uncertain electoral future, particularly when the represent more conservative districts. Similarly, male legislators may experience greater pressure to represent women's interests when they are electorally vulnerable, particularly in more liberal districts. Using survey data on men and women state legislators' policy preferences and legislative activities and state legislative election returns, I find that electoral security does significantly condition the effect of gender. Gender differences are more pronounced among legislators with safer electoral margins and muted among those narrower margins of victory. This suggests that the substantive representation of women's interests may be enhanced by electorally secure descriptive representatives and electorally vulnerable non-descriptive ones. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning in 1990, and continuing throughout the decade, twenty-one states enacted term limitations for members of their legislative branches. Twelve of these twenty-one states have begun to term out legislators. While term limits have impacted state legislatures in various forms, the focus of this research is its impact on female legislators. More specifically we build on the pioneering work of Thompson and Moncrief (1993) who hypothesized, prior to most term limits going into effect, that term limits would produce an increase in the tenure of office for females. Now that the term limits of several states have gone into effect, our research seeks to empirically test their earlier hypotheses and examine the actual effects term limits have had on the length of female state legislators' tenure in office and their changing role as state legislative leaders. While several scholars (Hoffman 1998, Caress 1999, Carroll and Jenkins 1999, Rix 1999, Bernstein and Chadha 2000, Carol and Jenkins 2001) have examined the effects of term limits on female representation, these previous analyses have only examined the issue at the aggregate level or have been limited to three or fewer states. Our analysis is unique in examining all twelve states which term limits have gone into effect at the individual level. Furthermore, the passage of time naturally provides our analysis with additional years to examine. Finally, in addition to examining the length of tenure in office, our individual analysis also provides us with the opportunity to examine the likely increase in female legislative leadership positions. Building on Thompson and Moncrief's original work, we hypothesize that women in term limited states will have a longer average tenure in office in both the upper chamber and lower chamber when compared to men. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: In 2003, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman posed the following question: What kind of state elects women to only one in six available seats in the Legislature? Her answer branded Arkansas, Tennessee --- and New Jersey. Yet an examination bounded by demographic, socio-economic and political variables does not explain the percentage of women serving in these legislative bodies, or elsewhere in the country. Moreover, the low number of women serving in these bodies does not correlate to the absence of women leaders serving in top leadership positions. In the last 10 years, 22 legislative chambers in 15 states have been headed by women including states with less than 20% total female members.Hence after breaking through panes in the glass ceiling, why do women lawmakers in some states, like NJ, get stuck in the rafters of the ornately decorated legislative chambers while their counterparts in Wyoming, Iowa and Missouri occupy top leadership positions? This qualitative study examined this phenomenon from the perspective of 20+ participants in NJ which were stratified into three groups: women legislators, male legislators, (including leaders) and stakeholders (scholars, staffers and lobbyists). In order to explore what is occurring, as well as the why and how, data was collected through participatory observations, depth interviews and material culture and documents. Utilizing a grounded theory methodology, the preliminary analysis suggests leadership in the NJ legislature is causally related to power; how power is obtained, as well as the obstacles to power which vary by gender. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the substantive effect that increasing women's representation has for the 49 U.S. states with partisan legislatures from 1981-2001 on social spending. The analysis found that there is a curvilinear relationship between women's representation and general social spending, education spending and spending on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).