Women, Partisanship, and the Congress

Extract

Women, Partisanship, and the Congress. By Jocelyn Jones Evans. New York: Palgrave Macmillian. 2005. 161 pp. $65.00.

In Women, Partisanship, and the Congress, Jocelyn Jones Evans brings a fresh perspective to the women officeholder literature. Rather than emphasizing gendered impact on policy and political outcomes, she focuses on elements of the institutional impact on women's professional opportunities. The primary question underlying her analysis is not “What difference do women make?” but “What opportunities do they have for career advancement given the cultures of the two major parties?” In this, the central premise of the book fits within recent scholarly inquiry into the effects of gendered institutions on the experiences and impact of women officeholders. Further, her work serves as a reminder that scholars have not placed sufficient emphasis on female legislators' ability to achieve career success—and that success possibilities differ in each of the two major parties.