Are Female House Members Still More Liberal in a Polarized Era? The Conditional Nature of the Relationship Between Descriptive and Substantive Representation

Why Aren't There More Republican Women in Congress? Gender, Partisanship, and Fundraising Support in the 2010 and 2012 Elections

“…In the current partisan and polarized electoral environment, Democratic women should benefit from the fact that they are generally more liberal than Democratic men (Frederick 2009;Pearson 2013), and they are perceived to be more liberal by voters (King and Matland 2003;Koch 2000). As a result, Democratic women should attract even more of these liberal Democratic donors than Democratic men.…”

Gender and Roll Call Voting Behavior in Congress: A Cross-Chamber Analysis

“…Simon and Palmer (2010) extended this analysis from 1937-2008 and also confirmed that male and female House members representing the same districts displayed very little variation in their voting records. Frederick's (2009) extensive time series analysis of voting patterns in the House from the 97th-109th Congresses reveals that while Republican women were once more liberal than their male colleagues in more recent congresses these differences have all but vanished. He maintains this result is an outgrowth of a polarized institution where Republican women feel substantial pressure to compile more conservative records in line with the national party platform.…”

“…Most importantly, the magnitude of these differences is negligible revealing gender's influence on roll call voting behavior among Democrats in Congress is on display only when Female House Democrats are examined. Part of the explanation for this difference can be accounted for by the fact that female House Democrats tend to represent more liberal constituencies (Frederick 2009;Gerrity et al 2007;Palmer and Simon 2008). Figures 4-6 present the mean support received by Democratic presidential candidates for the most recent election in the state or district of the Senator or Representative.…”

“…Extended longitudinal analyses of gender and legislative activity in the U.S. House have shown that the nature of this relationship is very sensitive to the time frame examined (Frederick 2009). Ideally one could go back decades to explore voting behavior in the House and Senate.…”

“…Whether looking at multiple indices of liberalism or conservatism or at specific issues substantively related to the concerns of women a wide array of scholars has established that women tend be to the left of their male colleagues (Burrell 1994;Clark 1998;Dodson 2006;Dolan 1997;Francovic 1977;Frederick 2011;Pearson 2009;Rocca et al 2008;Swers 1998 and2002;Tatalovich and Schier 1993;Welch 1985). In spite of this evidence an emerging line of studies have begun to question the conventional wisdom (Frederick 2009;Schwindt-Bayer and Corbetta 2004;Simon and Palmer 2010). The message emanating from this line of scholarship is that gender is not a significant variable when it comes to predicting how members of Congress are positioned on the ideological spectrum.…”