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

Frederick, Brian

doi:10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2013.34.0.1-20

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We have reviewed work examining the behavior of citizens and elites, but social role theory could also be extended to studying the behavior of men and women elected to office. There are numerous studies that demonstrate that male and female lawmakers differ in their legislative approaches and outputs (e.g., Anzia & Berry, ; Frederick, ; Lazarus & Steigerwalt, ; Pearson & Dancey, ; Swers, ; Volden et al, , to name a few). A political psychology approach could extend this research by examining the extent to which male and female politicians conform to or deviate from their gender roles once elected.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Application of Social Role Theory to the Study of Gender in Politics

Schneider

Bos

2019

Political Psychology

137

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social role theory provides a framework to help understand the complexity of gender in the political sphere. We demonstrate how SRT both helps to explain extant research findings and to generate future research that will help explain the complicated ways in which gender shapes U.S. politics. This article considers two broad categories of behavior: the gendered opinions and engagement of the citizenry and the gendered evaluations of political actors by elites and voters. Within each category, we propose moving beyond the male-female binary and consider the effects of gender in conjunction with other key political identities, such as race, ethnicity, age, as well as examining the effects of (dis)ability, and class. As well, our work demonstrates how masculinity encompasses the U.S. political system and serves as a backdrop in front of which gender roles shape political behavior, and role incongruity can lead to prejudice. This project lays the groundwork for future work to apply theories from psychology to a gendered analysis of U.S. politics. Through a better understanding of sex, gender, and their combined effects with race and other intersectional identities, we contribute to a broader goal of creating a more inclusive U.S. politics. bs_bs_banner Gender in the CitizenryTo consider how gender affects the opinions and participation of the citizenry, we first introduce key concepts that lay the groundwork for social role theory. As a central organizing theory, social role theory provides an explanation for how the powerful, pervasive, segregated social roles of men and women produce gender stereotypes and gendered behavior. Then, we organize the article into sections that address the main outcomes of interest we introduced above: public opinion and political participation. We conclude each section with future research.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Application of Social Role Theory to the Study of Gender in Politics

Schneider

Bos

2019

Political Psychology

137

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our findings raise normative questions about the quality of representation experienced by Republican women in this era of heightened partisan polarization. Although Republican women in Congress in the 1980s and 1990s held more liberal views and roll call records (Swers 2002), beginning in the 109th Congress, Republican women were ideologically indistinguishable from men in the House—even on women’s issues (Frederick 2013). Female GOP senators have retained some discretion to pursue more centrist objectives (Swers 2013) but face significant obstacles to legislating on women’s issues given their small numbers and conservative bases (Swers 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

American Party Women

Barnes

Cassese

2016

Political Research Quarterly

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ArticleTraditionally, women were more politically conservative than men. Yet, in the early 1980s, women began realigning, shifting to the left of men and reversing the gender gap in developed democracies across the globe (BoxSteffensmeier, De Boef, and Lin 2004;Inglehart and Norris 2003). Today, women in the United States are more likely to identify with the Democratic Party, vote for Democratic Party candidates, and hold liberal positions on social issues. Although scholars have devoted considerable attention to understanding the gender gap in public opinion, existing research focuses almost exclusively on average differences between men and womenemphasizing women's liberal tendencies and defining women's political identity almost entirely in liberal terms. While women's greater average liberalism is well established empirically, approximately one in four women identify with the Republican Party-a figure that translates into millions of American women who buck this liberal trend (Deckman 2016). Because existing research has focused on average differences between men and women, we know little about sources of heterogeneity among women.Does the gender gap extend to the Republican Party, with Republican women holding more liberal views than their male counterparts? To date, most research about Republican women has focused on the elite level, investigating factors like party structure, activists and donors, conservative women's groups, and candidates for political office (Cooperman and Crowder-Meyer 2015;Thomsen 2015). Comparatively little research has considered the attitudes and issue preferences of Republican women in the electorate. 1 In recent years, the United States has seen a rise in high-profile Republican women running for office and the development of a conservative women's movement (Schreiber 2008(Schreiber , 2014. The surge in conservative appeals to women, coupled with the increased salience of and polarization on "women's issues"-for example, the Mommy Wars and the Republican War on Women-requires that scholars revisit the conventional wisdom about women's political identities.Building on the burgeoning body of research on partisan sorting, we develop expectations regarding the intersection between gender and party. Theories of partisan sorting suggest that women and men sort themselves into the party that best represents their views-such that the AbstractResearch on the gender gap in American politics has focused on average differences between male and female voters. This has led to an underdeveloped understanding of sources of heterogeneity among women and, in particular, a poor understanding of the political preferences of Republican women. We argue that although theories of ideological sorting suggest gender gaps should exist primarily between political parties, gender socialization theories contend that critical differences lie at the intersection of gender and party such that gender differences likely persist within political parties. Using survey data from the 2012 American National Election ...

show abstract

“…We do not, however, find that Republican women legislators were systematically more liberal ideologues at any point in our data analysis. Drawing from congressional work in the 1970s and 1980s, Republican women were, at one time, more liberal than Republican men, at least in Congress (and may still be in the U.S. Senate [Frederick , ]). It is also possible, drawing from Thomsen () and Carroll and Sanbonmatsu (), that moderate Republican women wish to run for office but are not ideologically fit for and/or supported by a more conservative Republican Party.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Frederick () posits that women legislators in the House of Representatives have polarized in recent Congresses, beginning in the 108th Congress (2003–04). In several studies, he shows that the substantive impact of gender on roll‐call voting has lessened over time, leading men and women in each party to look much more similar to each other over time and erasing much of the liberalism among Republican women compared to Republican men (Frederick , , ; see also Evans ). Frederick notes that within the Senate, however, Republican women are noticeably more liberal than their male counterparts, suggesting that the legislative chamber in which women work may help determine the extent to which they differ from men (Frederick , ).…”

Section: Women Roll‐call Voting and Representationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In several studies, he shows that the substantive impact of gender on roll‐call voting has lessened over time, leading men and women in each party to look much more similar to each other over time and erasing much of the liberalism among Republican women compared to Republican men (Frederick , , ; see also Evans ). Frederick notes that within the Senate, however, Republican women are noticeably more liberal than their male counterparts, suggesting that the legislative chamber in which women work may help determine the extent to which they differ from men (Frederick , ). Work on women in Congress using measures other than roll‐call votes also emphasizes an increase in disputes on women's issues between Democratic and Republican women in the House and in American politics more generally (e.g., Carroll ; Deckman ; Dodson ; Schreiber ; Swers and Larson )…”

Section: Women Roll‐call Voting and Representationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Ideology and Polarization Among Women State Legislators

Osborn

Kreitzer

Schilling

et al. 2019

Legislative Studies Qtrly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In early work on women in Congress, scholars consistently identified a tendency among women legislators to be more liberal roll‐call voters than male copartisans. Recent changes in Congress point to the polarization of women, where Democratic women remain more liberal than Democratic men but Republican women are no different from, or more conservative than, Republican men. We use newly available state legislative roll‐call data to determine whether women state legislators are more liberal or polarized than male copartisans. We find that while Democratic women state legislators remain consistently more liberal than male copartisans in most state chambers, Republican women legislators are growing more conservative. Thus, women state legislators are increasingly polarized in most U.S. states. Legislator replacement and increasing polarization among state legislators in office contribute to this effect. We argue that polarization among women legislators has implications for the representation of women in the states.

show abstract

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

Cited by 6 publications

References 40 publications

The Application of Social Role Theory to the Study of Gender in Politics

The Application of Social Role Theory to the Study of Gender in Politics

American Party Women

Ideology and Polarization Among Women State Legislators

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About