Research and Scholarship

CAWP research and research by CAWP scholars that addresses emerging questions about American women's political participation. 

  • Do Parties Know that ‘Women Win’? Party Leader Beliefs about Women’s Electoral Chances

    by Kira Sanbonmatsu
    Politics & Gender 2006 (December)

    In an analysis of state legislative election results, the author finds few gender differences in candidates' vote share and success rates—two widely used measures of the status of women candidates. Yet many party leaders report that one gender has an electoral advantage. These party leader perceptions are related to the objective measures of women's electoral success to some extent. However, most analyses reveal a gap between elite perceptions and objective measures of women's status as candidates. This disjuncture suggests that scholars may have overestimated the extent of party leader and voter support for women. 

    Article
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Political Parties
    Candidates and Campaigns
  • Gender Pools and Puzzles: Charting a 'Women's Path' to the Legislature

    by Kira Sanbonmatsu
    Politics & Gender 2006, Volume 2 (September)

    The “social eligibility pool” stands as one of the most common, and most powerful, explanations for women's underrepresentation in elective office. In this article, Sanbonmatsu revisits the eligibility pool account of women's representation and argues that it has significant shortcomings as a causal explanation. She proposes that scholars direct their attention to how changes occur in beliefs about the types of backgrounds that are thought to be desirable in politicians—the “informal qualifications” for public office. She suggests that scholars work to identify the conditions under which women can take a “women's path” to the legislature from

    Article
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Candidate Recruitment
    State Legislature
  • Moms Who Swing, or Why the Promise of the Gender Gap Remains Unfulfilled

    by Susan J. Carroll
    Politics & Gender (2006)

    In 2004, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the voter turnout rate for women was 60.1% compared with 56.3% for men, and across the United States 8.8 million more women than men voted. Women have voted at higher rates than men in all presidential elections since 1980, with the gap between women and men growing slightly larger in each subsequent election year. Moreover, in 2004, women outvoted men (in terms of both turnout rates and actual numbers) in every racial and ethnic group—African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and whites (Center for American Women and Politics 2005a).

    Article
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Women Voters and the Gender Gap
  • Where Women Run: Gender and Party in the American States

    by Kira Sanbonmatsu 
    University of Michigan Press, 2006, 264 pages

    Drawing on surveys and case studies of party leaders and legislators in six states, the author analyzes the links between parties and representation, exposing the mechanism by which parties’ informal recruitment practices shape who runs – or doesn’t run – for political office in the United States. 

    Book
    Research
    CAWP Scholar
    Political Parties
    Candidates and Campaigns
    Candidate Recruitment