The Choice Is Yours: Caucus Typologies and Collaboration in U.S. State Legislatures

Holman, Mirya R.; Mahoney, Anna Mitchell

doi:10.1080/00344893.2019.1581079

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…There are also reasons to expect that women might be better situated to engage in effective bipartisan collaboration in state legislatures. In twenty-two states, women participate in bipartisan women’s caucuses that enable bipartisan cooperation even in highly polarized contexts (Holman and Mahoney 2019; Mahoney 2018). Even in states without such organizations, legislators report their women colleagues as more likely to reach across the aisle (Center for American Women and Politics [CAWP] 2001; Osborn 2012).…”

Section: Bill Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beyond pure probability, an increasing share of women in the body could also signal a decrease in marginalization of women in that body and the normalization of women’s leadership and capacities as legislators. Within the institution, women’s presence has meant not just the physical incorporation of women with the addition of women’s restrooms and mothers’ nursing rooms in public buildings but the establishment of women’s caucuses and commissions which work to incorporate women and a gendered analysis into politics (Holman and Mahoney 2019; Kanthak and Krause 2012). Women’s presence in legislatures also shapes the issue agenda; as more women are elected to the body, the probability of a policy agenda that focuses on women’s issues increases (Atkeson and Carrillo 2007; Osborn 2012; Swers 2002).…”

Section: Women’s Marginalization and Electoral Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Let’s Work Together: Bill Success via Women’s Cosponsorship in U.S. State Legislatures

Holman

Mahoney

Hurler

2021

Political Research Quarterly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Not all pieces of legislation introduced for consideration are equally likely to be successful. The characteristics of legislation’s cosponsors can influence bill passage rates. Despite facing marginalization in legislative bodies and more electoral vulnerability, women are effective lawmakers. We argue that one way by which women overcome marginalization and gendered expectations of performance is bill success from legislation cosponsored with other women. Testing this expectation on bills (140,000+) introduced in U.S. state legislatures in forty states in 2015, we find increased bill success from women’s cosponsorship with each other and women from the other party. Using variation in the share of women in legislative chambers and in legislative leadership, we find evidence to suggest that women’s success emerges both from marginalization and gendered opportunities.

show abstract

Section: Bill Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Women’s Marginalization and Electoral Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Let’s Work Together: Bill Success via Women’s Cosponsorship in U.S. State Legislatures

Holman

Mahoney

Hurler

2021

Political Research Quarterly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In comparison, men are socialized to be agentic, which includes strong leadership, caring about prestige, and seeking power. Within this context, women in political office represent women's interests because they engage in both a policymaking process that replicates gendered social roles, that is, being more cooperative and collaborative (Barnes 2016; Holman and Mahoney 2018, 2019) and via the policies that they pursue, such as activism around children's issues (Poggione 2004; Swers 2002). Scholars have argued that such policy activism often emerges from women politicians' experiences in the private sphere, where they engage in more care work (Poggione 2004; Swers 2002).…”

Section: Why Does Pink‐collar Representation Matter?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pink‐Collar Representation and Budgetary Outcomes in US States

Barnes

Beall

Holman

2020

Legislative Studies Qtrly

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Legislatures worldwide are dominated by wealthy elites, who are often out of touch with the needs and problems of citizens. Research shows that the underrepresentation of the working class matters in terms of policy processes and outcomes. Yet the research on class has largely focused on blue‐collar representatives, who are primarily men. Working‐class women are more likely to hold pink‐collar jobs, or low‐status occupations dominated by women. We argue that pink‐collar legislators are uniquely positioned to legislate over education and social service policy. To test our argument, we combine a new coding of working‐class backgrounds that accounts for pink‐collar representation with state spending data on education and social services from US states over time. Modeling compositional budget data, we find that class and gender intersect to shape policy outcomes via state budget allocations, with women's pink‐collar representation associated with increased spending on both education and social services.

show abstract

“…Although recent work has demonstrated the importance of caucuses in promoting female cosponsorship in the states Mahoney 2018, 2019), it does not consider the ways that different levels of marginalization interact with the presence of these caucuses. Caucuses should provide an institutional arrangement that eases the costs of women working together to promote their bills and counter the impact of their systematic exclusion from leadership positions (Barnes 2016;Holman and Mahoney 2019). We argue that when women face a lack of formal avenues for influence in the chamber, the presence of a WC makes gender-based collaboration a particularly appealing and efficient means of compensating.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Marginalization and Mobilization: The Roots of Female Legislators’ Collaborative Advantage in the States

Swift¹,

VanderMolen

2021

State Politics Policy Q.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scholars have argued that female legislators are more prone to collaborate than their male counterparts. Though collaboration may be more or less evident in particular situations, we seek to more clearly establish the mechanism behind women’s collaborative activity using the framework of marginalization. In this paper, we use cosponsorship data from 74 state legislative chambers from 2011–2014 to analyze collaborative patterns and mobilizing institutions. We find female legislators are more collaborative than men, and that their collaborative advantage strengthens in chambers where women are systematically excluded from leadership positions. The advantage also extends to bipartisan collaboration, but only in less polarized settings with women’s caucuses. Furthermore, our findings imply that as women are integrated into leadership collaboration will actually decline, especially within their own party. We believe these results are important for understanding both the roots of collaborative behavior among female legislators and consequences of chambers that marginalize women from leadership positions.

show abstract

The Choice Is Yours: Caucus Typologies and Collaboration in U.S. State Legislatures

Cited by 7 publications

References 38 publications

Let’s Work Together: Bill Success via Women’s Cosponsorship in U.S. State Legislatures

Let’s Work Together: Bill Success via Women’s Cosponsorship in U.S. State Legislatures

Pink‐Collar Representation and Budgetary Outcomes in US States

Marginalization and Mobilization: The Roots of Female Legislators’ Collaborative Advantage in the States

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About