Publications

Overall, women state legislators today are more liberal in their political ideology and policy attitudes than their male colleagues. Today’s gender gap is due more to the disproportionate number of Democrats among women legislators. The greatest change over time has taken place among Republican women representatives, who are more conservative and more like their male counterparts. 

This article analyzes the role of political parties in shaping women's representation across the U.S. states. 

The author argues that many voters have a baseline gender preference to vote for male over female candidates, or female over male candidates. Using original survey data, the author finds that this general predisposition or preference can be explained by gender stereotypes about candidate traits, beliefs, and issue competencies, and by voter gender. The author also argues that this baseline preference affects voting behavior.

A general overview on the effect of term limits on the numbers of women in elective office.

In 2001, CAWP surveyed female and male state legislators and compared the new data with prior CAWP research findings. The initial brief research reports include descriptions of women legislators today and comparisons with their male colleagues as well as with their 1988 counterparts.

Funding for this project was provided by a grant from the Center for American Women and Politics, Rutgers University.  Prindeville's study explores the role of Southwestern Native American women leaders in tribal politics, and their right to participate equally with men in their nations’ governance.  

The studies in this book examine the impact of women public officials serving in various offices and locales at local, state, and national levels.  Order from Amazon and a percentage of the sale goes to CAWP.

This report examines the political work of women legislators in the 103rd and 104th congresses as they attempted to transform their commitment to represent women into law. 

This article finds that "contrary to the expectation of term-limit advocates and many scholars, the number of women serving in term-limited statehouse seats actually decreased following the 1998 and 2000 elections."

This monograph reports on a November, 1999 CAWP meeting to examine preliminary data on the impact of term limits on women’s representation and to explore how women might capitalize upon the political opportunities created by term limits.