Publications

Drawing on insights from gender, race, and intersectionality research, Sanbonmatsu examines the status of women of color and analyzes the role of parties in shaping their candidacies for statewide elective executive office. While women of color have made important inroads with respect to statewide officeholding, they remain underrepresented as candidates and officeholders in both parties.
 

The movement of women into state-level offices has slowed in recent years after several decades of gains, and following the 2012 elections, the numbers of women in both state legislative and executive branch offices increased only slightly. Efforts to actively recruit women for elected and appointed positions will be critical in determining what the future holds for women in state government.

This chapter analyzes the 2008 Democratic presidential primary to consider the ways in which a male spouse challenges a female candidate’s image as a capable and independent executive.  Dittmar examines the media’s framing of both male and female spouses on the campaign trail and analyzes the extent to which coverage reflects a transgendering, or equal gender valuing, of candidate spouses’ roles. She finds a combination of spousal role evolution and constraint in media frames, simultaneously empowering presidential spouses while attributing greater gender power to the masculine partner – whether candidate or spouse. 

An analysis of women voters and the role they will play in the 2012 elections. 

This paper examines the factors that account for the rapid rise in the number of women legislators in New Jersey, focusing primarily on the time period from 2004 through 2011. Central to the analysis is the question of what it would take to bring about enduring change in a political system characterized by a strong, male-dominated party system like that found in New Jersey.

Analysis of results from an unprecedented nationwide survey of state legislators conducted in 2008 by the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

This book is part of the CAWP Series in Gender and American Politics published by the University of Michigan Press in association with CAWP. Goss charts the scope and trajectory of American women's policy agendas and collective engagement in public policy-making from the 19th-century suffrage movement through the present day.
 

This chapter relies on 2006 ANES Pilot Study to expand our understanding of voter attitudes about gender issues in important ways. The authors determine whether candidate gender is still an important cue in the face of the central influence of political party. In addition, the authors measure whether people have a preference for women or men in elected office.

This book is part of the CAWP Series in Gender and American Politics published by the University of Michigan Press in association with CAWP. Political theorist S. Laurel Weldon demonstrates that social movements provide a hitherto unrecognized form of democratic representation, and thus offer a significant potential for deepening democracy and overcoming social conflict. 

In recent years, the movement of women into state-level offices has slowed following several decades of gains. Following the 2010 elections, the number of women in both state legislative and statewide elective office declined. Efforts to actively recruit women for elective and appointive positions will be critical in determining what the future holds for women in state government.