Individuals with similar political orientations may find themselves in dissimilar social and political surroundings, with important consequences for the flow of political information among citizens. Analyses of data from the post-election survey of the 2000 National Election Study show that some individuals reside within extensive networks of political discussion and communication, whereas others are politically isolated. With respect to presidential candidate preference in 2000, some citizens in networks were surrounded by discussants who agreed with their preference, others by discussants who held ambiguous and undetermined preferences, and still others by discussants who held politically divergent preferences. These preference distributions have various implications for the formation of political opinion and for levels of political engagement and turnout.If political communication among citizens is to be informative and meaningful, individuals must encounter divergent perspectives and viewpoints. Such political disagreement lies at the core of collective deliberation among citizens in democratic politics, but theories of citizenship are often less than optimistic regarding the capacity of citizens to engage in sustained patterns of disagreement. A frequent portrayal of social communication in politics is that most citizens are located in politically homogeneous groups, surrounded by individuals who share their political opinions and attitudes, thereby making political disagreement a rare

In this article we measure the impact of gender on women's legislative behavior by utilizing a unique research design. We compare whether women and men of the same political party represent the same congressional district differently with respect to women's issues. Using bill sponsorship and floor remarks during the 104th to 107th sessions of the U.S. House of Representatives as measures of legislative behavior, we find that female legislators who replace men in the same district introduce more women's issues bills in Congress. Although our conclusion that women legislators represent women's issues more frequently in the House supports existing research, our results do so in a new and more effective way by controlling for the competing explanations of party identification and district opinion as factors determining a legislator's behavior. D escriptive representation assumes that members of certain groups share unique experiences and viewpoints such that only they can adequately represent the group on certain issues (Pitkin 1967, 90). If descriptive representation translates into substantive representation, women's current descriptive underrepresentation in legislatures in the United States can result in a lack of substantive policies that address the unique concerns of women, such as women's health, child care and

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Research on women as legislators contends that through their unique status as both women and legislators, women representatives have distinct policy interests that help them to substantively represent women as a group with their actions in the legislative chamber. We test this assertion using the floor speeches of women and men in the US Senate to determine if women senators as a group express different policy preferences in this aspect of Senate participation. Through content analysis of floor speeches in the 106th Senate (1999)(2000), we find women do speak more about policy concerns with direct relevance to women, such as women's health and family issues. These findings indicate that women senators, previously understudied, do represent women's interests in this chamber.

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Ph.D.-granting institutions want students to complete their doctoral degrees. Most graduate departments in political science focus their training on preparing students to pursue academic careers. We provide valid and reliable empirical data about the factors that affect students' prospects for successfully completing political science doctoral degrees and finding academic jobs. Because National Science Foundation data (2002, Table 53) reveal significant differences in the number of doctoral degrees awarded to women compared with men, we test a series of hypotheses based on the existing literature that may account for these differences. Our paper applies knowledge gained from previous studies, such as in the area of mentoring (Wasby 2001; Andersen 2001; Benesh 2001), to explain observed gender differences in doctoral degree completion and success in gaining academic employment thereafter. The research was commissioned and funded by the Executive Council of the Midwest Political Science Association; additional funding was provided by the department of political science at the University of Iowa. Barbara Burrell of Northern Illinois University oversaw the data collection for round two of the panel study. Kimberly M. Lewis of the University of Iowa provided research assistance.

Objective. This article argues that whether male candidates have facial hair has political implications. We argue that facial hair makes men appear overly masculine, having strong support for use of violence and little support for feminist views, which makes them less attractive candidates for women and feminists. Further, we argue that these perceptions are likely accurate. Methods. Using a survey of college-age subjects, the research generally supports this theory. Results. Men with facial hair are seen as more masculine, as well as more conservative on feminist issues, and women and feminists are less likely to vote for them. Further, we find perceptions of masculinity mediate the effects of facial hair on voters' perceptions of them and willingness to vote for them. However, candidates with facial hair are seen as less supportive of use of force and these perceptions are not accurate based on members' roll-call votes. Conclusion. This article indicates that male candidates send a signal to voters about their masculinity by their choice of whether to shave.

Differences in knowledge about politics between men and women have the potential to affect political discussion. We examine differences in the perception of political knowledge between men and women and the effects these differences have on how often men and women talk about politics. We find both men and women perceive women to be less knowledgeable about politics and men to be more knowledgeable, regardless of the actual level of knowledge each discussion partner holds. This perceptual knowledge gap could have ramifications for discussion as political participation, since people turn to those they perceive to be experts to gather political information.