The Impact of Women in Public Office

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.

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State Legislature
Local
Statewide Executive
U.S. Congress

The Impact of Term Limits on Women

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."

Article
Analysis
Officeholders
Candidates
State Legislature

Increasing Diversity or More of the Same? Term Limits and the Representation of Women, Minorities, and Minority Women in State Legislatures

This paper examines the question of whether term limits lead to greater diversity among legislators in terms of their gender, race, and ethnicity. Their findings from an analysis of electoral outcomes in states where term limits were in effect in 1998 and 2000 suggest that the answer to the question of whether term limits lead to more diverse legislatures is not straightforward.

Article
Analysis
Officeholders
Candidates
State Legislature

Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of American Politics, 1st Edition

Gender and Elections offers a systematic, lively, multi-faceted account of the role of gender in the electoral process through the 2004 elections. This volume strikes a balance between highlighting the most important developments for women as voters and candidates in the 2004 elections and providing a more long-term, in-depth analysis of the ways that gender has helped shape the contours and outcomes of electoral politics in the United States. Individual chapters demonstrate the importance of gender in understanding and interpreting presidential elections, voter participation and turnout, voting choices, congressional elections, the

Book
Analysis
Officeholders
Candidates
Voters
State Legislature
Statewide Executive
U.S. Congress
Federal Executive

Poised to Run: Women's Pathways to the State Legislatures

Poised to Run presents the initial findings of a 2008 CAWP study that asked women and men in state legislatures about their routes to elective office.

Report
Analysis
Officeholders
Candidates
State Legislature

Flat lines and Forecasting Women’s State Legislative Representation

When you are in the business of keeping numbers in the present, you’re often asked to forecast numbers in the future based on historical trends and variables. In our world of women’s political representation, we’re asked (and often ask ourselves) how long it will take for women to reach political parity in government. Here’s the problem: we can’t forecast...

Political Parties and the Recruitment of Women to State Legislatures

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

Article
Analysis
Candidates
State Legislature

Gender Pools and Puzzles: Charting a 'Women's Path' to the Legislature

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
Analysis
Candidates
State Legislature

More Women Can Run: Gender and Pathways to the State Legislatures

Analyzing nationwide surveys of state legislators conducted by CAWP, More Women Can Run challenges assumptions of a single model of candidate emergence with a relationally embedded model of candidacy. It reorients research on women's election to office and offers strategies for political practitioners concerned about women's political equality. Video of a book talk given by Carroll and Sanbonmatsu available here

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Analysis
Candidates
State Legislature
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