Women as Partisans in the U.S. House of Representatives: The Electoral Connection.

This work is part of a larger project to explore women’s participation within the partisan context of the American Congress. Current gender theory suggests significant gender-based differences in the participation of male and female Members of Congress. It neglects, however, to reflect the role of political parties and goal orientations in explaining women’s political behavior. The present work examines the partisan contexts within which female Members operate, focusing in this chapter on the electoral connection to congressional politics. This analysis combines personal interviews of Members and congressional staff with a preliminary analysis of Member-level and district-level congressional data. Party culture is significantly associated with the electoral circumstance of Members, thus leading to critical differences between the participation of Democratic and Republican women. While Democratic women have greater electoral security, they enjoy more discretion from the party to respond to constituency pressures. Alternatively, Republican women have less electoral security, but enjoy less discretion from the party to respond to constituency pressures. These findings hold significant implications for future examinations of women’s participation and set the stage for the rest of my analysis of women’s congressional behavior within the context of partisanship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]