The Partisan Gap Among Women State Legislators

Why So Few (Republican) Women? Explaining the Partisan Imbalance of Women in the U.S. Congress

“…The party's reputation is about “what the party stands for—and acts on—in terms of policy” (Aldrich and Freeze , 186; Snyder and Ting ). Party reputation is similar to Elder's () use of party culture, but the concept of party fit differs in that it emphasizes the interaction between the candidate and the party. The added value of party fit is threefold: first, it accounts for within‐party variation in levels of political ambition and party recruitment across women; second, it offers an explanation for the changing ideological profile among women in Congress; and third, it allows for a dynamic understanding of female representation that varies over time and across contexts.…”

The Women of the Pennsylvania General Assembly: Explaining Women’s Representation in Pennsylvania State Politics

“…Yet, there is a greater share of Republican women than Democratic women in the largest full-t ime, highly professionalized legislature, with 28 Republican women (59.6%) and 19 Democratic women (40.4%) in the Pennsylvania General Assembly (CAWP 2016a). Democratic women may be less likely to consider running for office in Pennsylvania than they would be in other states as a result of the absence of term limits and Pennsylvania's relatively low female labor force participation, for which the state was ranked 39th among the 50 states (Elder 2012;IWPR 2011). Republican women, on the other hand, may be more likely to consider running for office in Pennsylvania as a result of the Republican party's efforts to cultivate female leaders, including the establishment of the Anne B. Anstine Excellence in Public Service Series, which is an annual training program designed to prepare Republican women to be effective leaders (Asher 2014).…”

“…There are more Democratic women than Republican women in elected offices across the United States, and Republican women are even less likely than Democratic women to run for office in highly professionalized legislatures (Elder 2012;Sanbonmatsu 2002). Yet, there is a greater share of Republican women than Democratic women in the largest full-t ime, highly professionalized legislature, with 28 Republican women (59.6%) and 19 Democratic women (40.4%) in the Pennsylvania General Assembly (CAWP 2016a).…”

“…These include the professionalization of the legislature (Norrander and Wilcox 2005), the absence of term limits (Thompson and Moncrief 1993), the recruitment practices of political parties (Carroll 1994;Crowder-Meyer 2013;Elder 2012;Sanbonmatsu 2002), the cost of running a campaign (Norrander and Wilcox 2005), and whether officials are elected to single-m ember or multimember districts (Hogan 2001;Welch, et al 1985). As a full-time, highly professionalized legislature that lacks term limits and elects officials to single-member districts (NCSL 2016;Schmedlen 2001), the Pennsylvania General Assembly possesses a number of elements that are known to disadvantage potential female candidates.…”

Gender, Party, and Political Communication in the 114th Congress

“…In addition, some literature finds that Democrats (the party and voters) are directly more supportive of women candidates than Republicans (Kitchens and Swers 2016;King and Matland 2003), including at the state level (Elder 2012). Since Republicans view female candidates as more liberal than their male counterparts, unless a party signal differentiates the two, they will more likely back the male candidate (King and Matland 2003).…”