When Are Women More Effective Lawmakers Than Men?

Abstract

Previous scholarship has demonstrated that female lawmakers differ from their male counterparts by engaging more fully in consensus-building activities. We argue that this behavioral difference does not serve women equally well in all institutional settings. Contentious and partisan activities of male lawmakers may help them outperform women when in a polarized majority party. However, in the minority party, while men may choose to obstruct and delay, women continue to strive to build coalitions and bring about new policies. We find strong evidence that minority party women in the U.S. House of Representatives are better able to keep their sponsored bills alive through later stages of the legislative process than are minority party men, across the 93 rd -110 th Congresses (1973Congresses ( -2008. The opposite is true for majority party women, however, who counterbalance this lack of later success by introducing more legislation. Moreover, while the legislative style of minority party women has served them well consistently across the past four decades, majority party women have become less effective as Congress has become more polarized.

Women's authority in political decision-making groups

“…When legislators are in the majority party, by contrast, such coalition-building and consensus-seeking are less valuable strategies, as majority parties do not need to reach across party lines in order to pass legislation. Consistent with these hypotheses, Volden et al (2013) find that women are more successful than men at pushing bills they sponsor through the process when they are in the minority party, but comparatively less successful when their party holds the majority. Jeydel and Taylor's (2003) study of the 103rd through 105th Congresses uncovers a similar pattern.…”

“…Volden, Wiseman, and Wittmer (2013) theorize that when women are in the minority party, women's tendency to emphasize cooperation becomes a valuable resource because minority parties can only get things done when they reach outside the party and build coalitions with majority legislators. When legislators are in the majority party, by contrast, such coalition-building and consensus-seeking are less valuable strategies, as majority parties do not need to reach across party lines in order to pass legislation.…”

Gendered styles, gendered differences: Candidates’ use of personalization and interactivity on Twitter

“…Campbell (1989) noted that feminine communication styles invite more audience participation, and women's tendency to emphasize collaboration generally and in political settings suggests that interactivity is a more feminine style (Huddy & Terkildsen, 1993;McGraw, 2003;Volden et al, 2013). Before delving into the role of interactivity in social media, it is first important to conceptually define interactivity.…”

“…Voters like candidates who are honest, collaborative, and empathetic, all of which are perceived as "feminine character traits" (Huddy & Terkildsen, 1993;McGraw, 2003). There are discernable benefits to these traits: women politicians' emphasis on collaboration and consensus-building activities tends to keep their bills alive longer in the legislative process (Volden, Wiseman, & Wittmer, 2013). The benefits of feminine traits were also on display in 2013 when women senators said it was their ability to work together and across party lines that helped resolve the government shutdown (Steenland, 2013).…”

The Influence of Women Legislators on State Health Care Spending for the Poor

“…Some scholars find that having women in office influences the types of policy outcomes enacted by governments (see for instance [4,8,11]), while the research of others suggests a complicated or null relationship [12][13][14]. Still others observe that differing institutional environments, like holding leadership positions, heading committees, or having seniority best explains which representatives may be better able to affect endorsed policies [13,15,16].…”