Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:44:58.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Speaking for the Underrepresented in the House of Representatives: Voicing Women's Interests in a Partisan Era

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2012

Kathryn Pearson  and
Logan Dancey
Kathryn Pearson
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
Logan Dancey
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We ask whether women's descriptive representation in Congress enhances women's substantive representation through speechmaking on the House floor. Much of the research on women's substantive representation has focused on members' votes for and sponsorship of “women's issues” legislation. We depart from this research by systematically analyzing how members' gender and partisan identities affect gendered rhetoric in their floor speeches. In an era marked by significant increases in the number of congresswomen and partisan polarization, understanding the interactive effect of gender and partisanship on women's representation is particularly important. In an analysis of more than 30,000 speeches from 1993 to 2008, we find that when members speak about issues of their choosing during one-minute speeches, and during specific legislative debates over the most important policies considered on the House floor, congresswomen in both parties are significantly more likely than men to discuss women, enhancing women's representation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , December 2011 , pp. 493 - 519
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2011

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

REFERENCES

Burrell, Barbara C. 1994. A Woman's Place Is in the House: Campaigning for Congress in the Feminist Era. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Susan J. 1994. Women as Candidates in American Politics. 2d ed.Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Carroll, Susan J. 2002. “Representing Women: Congresswomen's Perceptions of their Representational Roles.” In Women Transforming Congress, ed. Simon Rosenthal, Cindy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Cranford, John. 2006. “Key Votes 2005: Power Plays and Polarization.” CQ Weekly. January 9, 108–10. http://library.cqpress.com/cqweekly/weeklyreport109-000002027052 (accessed May 24, 2011).Google Scholar
Dodson, Debra L. 1998. “Representing Women's Interests in the U.S. House of Representatives.” In Women and Elective Office, ed. Thomas, Sue and Wilcox, Clyde. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dodson, Debra L. 2006. The Impact of Women in Congress. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreier, David. 1999. “One Minute Speeches.” Parliamentary Outreach Program. U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Rules Majority Office, Vol. 106, no. 16. http://rules.house.gov/POP/pop106_16.htmGoogle Scholar
Duerst-Lahti, Georgia. 2002. “Knowing Congress as a Gendered Institution: Manliness and the Implications of Women in Congress.” In Women Transforming Congress, ed. Simon Rosenthal, Cindy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Frederick, Brian. 2009. “Are Female House Members Still More Liberal in a Polarized Era? The Conditional Nature of the Relationship Between Descriptive and Substantive Representation.” Congress & the Presidency 36 (2): 181–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelb, Joyce, and Lief Palley, Marian. 1996. Women and Public Policies: Reassessing Gender Politics. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.Google Scholar
Gerrity, Jessica C., Osborn, Tracy, and Morehouse Mendez, Jeanette. 2007. “Women and Representation: A Different View of the District?” Politics & Gender 3 (2): 179–200.Google Scholar
Gertzog, Irwin N. 2004. Women and Power on Capitol Hill: Reconstructing the Congressional Women's Caucus. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Richard. 1996. Participation in Congress. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, Douglas B. 2005. “Orchestrating Party Talk: A Party-Based View of One-Minute Speeches in the House of Representatives.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 30 (1): 127–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kathlene, Lyn. 1995. “Alternative Views of Crime: Legislative Policymaking in Gendered Terms.” Journal of Politics 57 (3): 696–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufmann, Karen M., and Petrocik, John R.. 1999. “The Changing Politics of American Men: Understanding the Sources of the Gender Gap.” American Journal of Political Science 43 (3): 864–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kedrowski, Karen M, and Stine Sarow, Marilyn. 2002. “The Gendering of Cancer Policy: Media Advocacy and Congressional Policy Attention.” In Women Transforming Congress, ed. Simon Rosenthal, Cindy. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Koch, Jeffrey W. 2002. “Gender Stereotypes and Citizens' Impressions of House Candidates' Ideological Orientations.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (2): 453–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levy, Dena, Tien, Charles, and Aved, Rachelle. 2001. “Do Differences Matter? Women Members of Congress and the Hyde Amendment.” Women & Politics 23(1/2): 105–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, J. Scott. 1997. Regression Models for Categorical and Limited Dependent Variables. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Long, J. Scott, and Freese, Jeremy. 2006. Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata. College Station, TX: Stata.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane J. 1999. “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent ‘Yes’” Journal of Politics 61 (3): 628–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matlzman, Forrest, and Sigelman, Lee. 1996. “The Politics of Talk: Unconstrained Floor Time in the U.S. House of Representatives.” Journal of Politics 58 (3): 819–30.Google Scholar
Mayhew, David. 1974. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
McDermott, Monika L. 1997. “Voting Cues in Low-Information Elections: Candidate Gender as a Social Information Variable in Contemporary US Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 41 (1): 270–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mezey, Susan Gluck. 1994. “Increasing the Number of Women in Office: Does It Matter?” In The Year of the Woman: Myths and Realities, ed. Adell Cook, Elizabeth, Thomas, Sue, and Wilcox, Clyde. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Morris, Jonathan S. 2001. “Reexamining the Politics of Talk: Partisan Rhetoric in the 104th House.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 26 (1): 101–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norton, Noelle H. 1999. “Uncovering the Dimensionality of Gender Voting in Congress.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 24 (1): 65–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborn, Tracy, and Morehouse Mendez, Jeanette. 2010. “Speaking as Women: Women and Floor Speeches in the Senate.” Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy 31 (1): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, Barbara, and Simon, Dennis. 2008. Breaking the Political Glass Ceiling: Women in Congressional Elections. 2nd ed.New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pearson, Kathryn, and Dancey, Logan. 2011. “Elevating Women s Voice in Congress: Speech Participation in the House of Representatives.” Political Research Quarterly 64 (4): 910–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pennebaker, J. W., Booth, R. J., and Francis, M. E.. 2007. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count: LIWC 2007. Austin, TX: LIWC. Available at http://www.liwc.net.Google Scholar
Pitkin, Hanna. 1967. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, Keith T, and Rosenthal, Howard. 1997. Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reingold, Beth Ann. 2000. Representing Women: Gender Differences Among Arizona and California State Legislators. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Rocca, Michael S. 2007. “Nonlegislative Debate in the U.S. House of Representatives.” American Politics Research 35 (4): 489–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohde, David W. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, Cindy Simon, ed. 2002. Women Transforming Congress. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2002. “Political Parties and the Recruitment of Women to State Legislatures.” Journal of Politics 64 (3): 791–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sapiro, Virginia. 1981. “When Are Interests Interesting? The Problem of Political Representation of Women.” American Political Science Review 75 (3): 701–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shogan, Colleen. 2002. “Speaking Out: An Analysis of Democratic and Republican Woman-Invoked Rhetoric in the 105th Congress.” Women & Politics 23 (1): 129–46.Google Scholar
Swers, Michele L. 1998. “Are Women More Likely to Vote for Women's Issues Bills Than Their Male Colleagues?” Legislative Studies Quarterly 23 (3): 435–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swers, Michele L. 2002. The Difference Women Make: The Policy Impact of Women in Congress. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theriault, Sean M. 2008. Party Polarization in Congress. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Sue. 1994. How Women Legislate. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Walsh, Katherine Cramer. 2002. “Enlarging Representation: Women Bringing Marginalized Perspectives to Floor Debate in the House of Representatives.” In Women Transforming Congress, ed. Simon Rosenthal, CindyNorman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Wolbrecht, Christina. 2000. The Politics of Women's Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar