Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:33:37.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Republican Lambs and the Democratic Pipeline: Partisan Differences in the Nomination of Female Gubernatorial Candidates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2007

Stephen J. Stambough  and
Valerie R. O'Regan
Stephen J. Stambough
Affiliation:
CSU Fullerton
Valerie R. O'Regan
Affiliation:
CSU Fullerton
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 2005, a record nine women served as their state's governor. Of these, eight were elected. A crucial and often difficult step for women to be successful in gubernatorial elections is for them to win the nomination for governor by their political party. From 1976 to 2004, only 79 women have won their party's nomination for governor. The record number of women nominees in a single year is 10, set in 1998 and 2002. Even with these recent successes, women as governors are both fairly rare and an understudied area of political science. In this study, we explore two different explanations for the nomination of women to elected office: the pipeline and sacrificial lamb models. Although some research argues that the sacrificial lamb model is outdated and has been replaced by the pipeline model, we find that both of these models are relevant for the study of female gubernatorial nominations, but in the same way for each political party. By examining gubernatorial election data from 1976 to 2004, we present evidence suggesting that the pipeline model helps to explain the nomination of Democratic women, while the sacrificial lamb model helps to explain the nomination of Republican women. Though preliminary, these findings have important implications for the growing, pro-Democratic, partisan imbalance of women officeholders.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 349 - 368
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramowitz, Alan I., and Segal, Jeffrey A.. 1992. Senate Elections. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William D., and Ringquist, Evan J.. 1998. “Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the American States, 1960–1993.” American Journal of Political Science 42 (1): 327–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William D., Ringquist, Evan J., Fording, Richard C., and Hanson, Russell L.. 2004. Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the United States. 2004 update, Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research.Google Scholar
Burrell, Barbara C. 1994. A Woman's Place Is in the House. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Susan J. 1985. Women as Candidates in American Politics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Center for American Woman and Politics (CAWP). 2004. Women in Elected Office 2004 Fact Sheet Summaries. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University, Eagleton Institute of Politics.Google Scholar
Conway, M. Margaret, Steuernagel, Gertrude A., and Ahern, David W.. 2005. Women and Political Participation. 2d ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Cooperman, Rosalyn, and Oppenheimer, Bruce I.. 2001. “The Gender Gap in the House of Representatives.” In Congress Reconsidered, 7th ed., Dodd, Lawrence C. and Oppenheimer, Bruce I.. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 125–140.Google Scholar
Darcy, R., Welch, Susan, and Clark, Janet. 1994. Women, Elections, and Representation. 2d ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 15–25.Google Scholar
Duerst-Lahti, Georgia. 1998. “The Bottleneck, Women Becoming Candidates.” In Women and Elective Office, Thomas, Sue and Wilcox, Clyde. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Erikson, Robert. 1976. “Is There Such a Thing as a Safe Seat?” Polity 8 (Summer): 623–32..CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Richard L., and Oxley, Zoe M.. 2003. “Gender Stereotypes in State Executive Elections: Candidate Selection and Success.” Journal of Politics 65 (3): 833–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, Lynne E. 2002. Women and Politics: The Pursuit of Equality. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Freeman, Jo. 1986. “The Political Culture of the Democratic and Republican Parties.” Political Science Quarterly 101 (3): 327–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gertzog, Irwin, and Simard, Michele. 1981. “Women and ‘Hopeless’ Congressional Candidacies: Nomination Frequency, 1916–1978.” American Politics Quarterly 9 (4): 449–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C., and Kernell, Samuel. 1983. Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections. Second ed. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Klarner, Carl. 2003. “The Measurement of the Partisan Balance of State Governments”. State Politics and Policy Quarterly 3 (3): 309–19.Google Scholar
King, Gary, and Zeng, Langche. 1999a. “Logistic Regression in Rare Events Data,” Department of Government, Harvard University. http://GKing.Harvard.edu (June 29, 2006).Google Scholar
King, Gary, and Zeng, Langche. 1999b. “Estimating Absolute, Relative, and Attributable Risks in Case-Control Studies.” Department of Government, Harvard University. http://GKing.Harvard.edu (June 29, 2006).Google Scholar
Lee, Barbara. 2001. Keys to the Governor's Office. Brookline, MA: The Barbara Lee Family Foundation.Google Scholar
Lublin, David, and Brewer, Sarah E.. 2003. “The Continuing Dominance of Traditional Gender Roles in Southern Elections.” Social Science Quarterly 84 (2): 379–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nechemias, Carol. 1987. “Changes in the Election of Women to U.S. State Legislative Seats.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 12 (1): 125–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxley, Zoe M., and Fox, Richard L.. 2004. “Women in Executive Office: Variation Across American States.” Political Research Quarterly 57 (1): 113–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, Kathryn, and McGhee, Eric. 2003. “Ms. Smith Goes to Washington: A Strategic Route to Congress.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April, 3–6.Google Scholar
Rogers, Mary Beth. 1993. “Women in Electoral Politics: A Slow, Steady Climb.” Social Policy 23 (4): 14–22.Google Scholar
Rule, Wilma. 1981. “Why Women Don't Run: The Critical Contextual Factors in Women's Legislative Recruitment.” Western Political Quarterly 34 (1): 60–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2002. “Political Parties and the Recruitment of Women to State Legislatures.” Journal of Politics 64 (3): 791–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, Dennis, and Palmer, Barbara. 2000. “Filling the Pipeline: Women and the Political Hierarchy, 1956–1998.” Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association, Atlanta, November 8–11.Google Scholar
Squire, Peverill. 1992. “Challenger Profile and Gubernatorial Elections.” Western Political Quarterly 45 (1): 125–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomz, Michael, King, Gary, and Zeng, Langche. 1999. RELOGIT: Rare Events Logistic Regression, Version 1.1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. http://gking.harvard.edu/ (June 29, 2006)Google Scholar
Watson, Robert P. 2003. “Introduction: The White House as Ultimate Prize.” In Anticipating Madam President, Watson, Robert P. and Gordon, Ann. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Ronald E., Tucker, Harvey J., and Brace, Paul. 1991. “Vanishing Marginals in State Legislative Elections.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 16 (1): 29–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Welch, Susan. 1978. “Recruitment of Women to Public Office: A Discriminant Analysis.” Western Political Quarterly 31 (3): 372–80.Google Scholar
Welch, Susan, and Studlar, Donley T.. 1996. “The Opportunity Structure for Women's Candidacies and Electability in Britain and the United States.” Political Research Quarterly 49 (4): 861–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, Clyde. 1994. “Why Was 1992 the ‘Year of the Woman’? Explaining Women's Gains in 1992.” In The Year of the Woman: Myths & Realities, Cook, Elizabeth A., Thomas, Sue, and Wilcox, Clyde. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1–24.Google Scholar
Witt, Linda, Paget, Karen M., and Matthews, Glenna. 1995. Running as a Woman: Gender and Power in American Politics. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar