Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-30T16:52:37.184Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pipeline or Pipedream: Gender Balance Legislation’s Effect on Women’s Presence in State Government

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2021

Shannon McQueen Open the ORCID record for Shannon McQueen [Opens in a new window]
Shannon McQueen*
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
*
Corresponding Author: Shannon McQueen, Political Science Department, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA Email: smcqueen@gwu.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Can legislation encouraging women’s political involvement impact women’s desire to run for elected office? Eleven states have passed legislation to promote equal gender representation on appointed government boards, and many argue this legislation will also develop a pipeline of women candidates to run for elected office. This paper is the first scholarly work to assess if gender balance legislation (GBL) increases the number of women candidates and women legislators within a state. I use a nonparametric generalization of the difference-in-differences estimator and find very little evidence that GBL significantly impacts women’s representation at the state level. Results are consistent across multiple outcome variables and different model specifications, including two-way fixed effects, generalized synthetic control, and synthetic control models. The insignificant impact of GBL speaks to the need to thoroughly investigate which institutional reforms adequately feed the female candidate pipeline.

Keywords

gender politicsgender policyelections
Type
Original Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , September 2021 , pp. 243 - 265
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

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

Abadie, Alberto, Diamond, Alexis, and Hainmueller, Jens. 2011. “Synth: An r Package for Synthetic Control Methods in Comparative Case Studies.” Journal of Statistical Software 42 (13).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abadie, Alberto, Diamond, Alexis, and Hainmueller, Jens. 2015. Comparative Politics and the Synthetic Control Method. American Journal of Political Science 59 (2):495–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archenti, Nélida, and María Inés, Tula. 2017. “Critical Challenges of Quotas and Parity in Latin America.” In Women, Politics, and Democracy in Latin America, 29–44. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkeson, Lonna Rae. 2003. “Not All Cues Are Created Equal: The Conditional Impact of Female Candidates on Political Engagement.” The Journal of Politics 65 (4):1040–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldez, Lisa, Barakso, Maryann, Freeman, Jo, Gelb, Joyce, Meyer, David S., Montoya, Celeste, Nechemias, Carol, Reger, Jo, and Robnett, Belinda. 2005. The US Women’s Movement in Global Perspective. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Baldez, Lisa. 2007. “Primaries vs. Quotas: Gender and Candidate Nominations in Mexico, 2003.” Latin American Politics and Society 49 (3):69–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauroth, Nicholas. 2005. Influence of Elections on Special District Revenue Policies: Special Democracies or Automatons of the State? State and Local Government Review 37 (3):193–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beaman, Lori, Duflo, Esther, Pande, Rohini, and Topalova, Petia. 2012. “Female Leadership Raises Aspirations and Educational Attainment for Girls: A Policy Experiment in India.” Science 335 (6068): 582–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beaman, Lori, Chattopadhyay, Raghabendra, Duflo, Esther, Pande, Rohini, and Topalova, Petia. 2009. “Powerful Women: Does Exposure Reduce Bias?.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 124 (4):1497–540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Erin. 2016. “Group Asks Justice for Gender Equity on Boards and Commissions.” TCA Regional News, December 11, 2016. http://proxygw.wrlc.org/login?url=https://search-proquestcom.proxygw.wrlc.org/docview/1847731850?accountid=11243 (accessed May 14, 2020).Google Scholar
Berger, Roger L., and Hsu, Jason C.. 1996. “Bioequivalence Trials, Intersection-Union Tests and Equivalence Confidence Sets.” Statistical Science 11 (4):283–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Betz, Diana E., and Sekaquaptewa, Denise. 2012. “My Fair Physicist? Feminine Math and Science Role Models Demotivate Young Girls.” Social Psychological and Personality Science 3 (6):738–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blevins, Cameron, and Mullen, Lincoln A.. 2015. “Jane, John … Leslie? A Historical Method for Algorithmic Gender Prediction.” Digital Humanities Quarterly 9 (3). http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/9/3/00.Google Scholar
Blevins, Cameron, Mullen, Lincoln, and Ben Schmidt. 2020. “Gender: Predict Gender from Names Using Historical Data.” R Package Version 0.5.4. https://cran.rproject.org/web/packages/gender/gender.pdf.Google Scholar
Boehmke, Frederick J., and Skinner, Paul. 2012. “State Policy Innovativeness Revisited.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 12 (3):303–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, Daniel C., and Greene, Zachary. 2014. “Should We Measure Professionalism with an Index? A Note on Theory and Practice in State Legislative Professionalism Research.” State Politics & Policy Quarterly 14 (3):277–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowen, Daniel, and Greene, Zachary. 2014. “Legislative Professionalism Component Scores, V1.1.1.” https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/27595, Harvard Dataverse, V3, UNF:6:ytWAFEgnSWO4LazQsoDY2Q==[fileUNF].Google Scholar
Broockman, David E. 2014. “Do Female Politicians Empower Women to Vote or Run for Office? A Regression Discontinuity Approach.” Electoral Studies 34:190–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, Nancy, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Verba, Sidney. 2001. The Private Roots of Public Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, David E., and Wolbrecht, Christina. 2006. “See Jane Run: Women Politicians as Role Models for Adolescents.” The Journal of Politics 68 (2):233–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannon, Austin. 2018. “Iowa’s Gender-Balance Law Is Nearly a Decade Old, But Progress Is Slow.” Des Moines Register, November 21. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2018/11/21/iowas-gender-balance-law-nearly-progress-slow-parity-waukee-des-moines-pocahontas-government/1992344002/.Google Scholar
Carroll, Susan J., and Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2013. More Women Can Run: Gender and Pathways to the State Legislatures. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women in Politics. 2018. Little Improvement in Gender Balance of Iowa County Boards and Commissions. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University. https://cattcenter.iastate.edu/2018/07/16/little-improvement-in-gender-balance-of-iowa-county-boards-and-commissions/.Google Scholar
Center for American Women and Politics. 2019. “Current Numbers.” Accessed January 2019. https://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/current-numbers.Google Scholar
Childs, Sarah, and Lovenduski, Joni. 2013. “Political Representation.” In The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Politics, 489–513. New York: Oxford University Press Google Scholar
Clark, Janet, Hadley, Charles D., and Darcy, Robert. 1989. “Political Ambition Among Men and Women State Party Leaders: Testing the Countersocialization Perspective.” American Politics Quarterly 17 (2):194–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colbert, Amy, and Bystrom, Dianne. 2014. “Iowa Women in Leadership Executive Summary.” In Iowa Women Lead Change, Nexus Executive Women’s. N.p.: Alliance, CCC Center for Women and Politics, Trippie College of Business. https://iastate.app.box.com/v/IowaWomeninLeadership2014.Google Scholar
Conway, M. Margaret, Ahern, David W., and Steuernagel, Gertrude A.. 2004. Women and Political Participation: Cultural Change in the Political Arena. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Crowder-Meyer, Melody. 2019. “Pipelines to Equal Representation? Gender and Political Ambition at the Local Level.” Working Paper.Google Scholar
Dolan, Kathleen. 2006. “Symbolic Mobilization? The Impact of Candidate Sex in American Elections.” American Politics Research 34 (6):687–704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, Melissa. 2015. “Getting Women ‘Ready to Run’.” TCA Regional News, February 14, 2015. http://proxygw.wrlc.org/login?url=https://search-proquestcom.proxygw.wrlc.org/docview/1655103886?accountid=11243 (accessed May 14 2020).Google Scholar
Follon, Sue. 1976. “RE: Executive Director’s Report.” “IoWoman: Volume V, Number 3.” Roxanne Barton Conlin Papers, Box 95; Series 3: Political; Sub-Series: Iowa Commission on the Status of Women; Folder: Minutes.Google Scholar
Filla, Jackie, and Larimer, Christopher W.. 2011. “Public Attitudes Toward Women as Public Leaders.” In APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper.Google Scholar
Foos, Florian, and Gilardi, Fabrizio. 2019.” Does Exposure to Gender Role Models Increase Women’s Political Ambition? A Field Experiment with Politicians.” Journal of Experimental Political Science 7 (3):157–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Richard L., and Lawless, Jennifer L.. 2010. “If Only They’d Ask: Gender, Recruitment, and Political Ambition.” The Journal of Politics 72 (2):310–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gappa, Margaret Dower. 1974. “Untitled. Boards and Commissions Report and Corresponding Material.” Iowa Women’s Political Caucus Records, Box 8; Series 5: Elections and Political Activities; Folder: Boards and Commissions: State, 1974. Reproduced, with Permission, From the Collections of the Iowa Women’s Archives, University of Iowa Libraries.Google Scholar
Gappa, Margaret Dower, and Conlin, Roxanne Barton. 1974. “For Release Wednesday, July 3, 1974.” Iowa Women’s Political Caucus Records, Box 3; Series 2: Committees; Folder: Publicity: Press Releases, 1974. Also in Governor Ray’s Commission on the Status of Women (Iowa) Records, Box 2; Series 3: Iowa Commission on the Status of Women; Folder: Miscellaneous.Google Scholar
Gilardi, Fabrizio. 2015. “The Temporary Importance of Role Models for Women’s Political Representation.” American Journal of Political Science 59 (4):957–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, Tricia. 2003. “Electoral Gender Quotas: Lessons from Argentina and Chile.” Bulletin of Latin American Research 22 (1):52–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannagan, Rebecca J., and Larimer, Christopher W.. 2017. “Society Is Balanced, So Local Boards Should Be Balanced, Too: Gatekeeper Attitudes Toward the Gender Balance Law in Iowa. Will Quotas Be Successful?” In Mothers and Others: The Role of Parenthood in Politics, eds. Thomas, M., and Bittner, A., 87–110. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press.Google Scholar
“History of Gender Balance Brief,” Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics. Accessed January 2020. https://iastate.app.box.com/v/GenderBalanceHistory.Google Scholar
Holman, Mirya R. 2017. “Women in Local Government: What We Know and Where We Go from Here.” State and Local Government Review 49 (4):285–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoyt, Crystal L., and Simon, Stefanie. 2011. “Female Leaders: Injurious or Inspiring Role Models for Women?” Psychology of Women Quarterly 35 (1):143–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Htun, Mala N., and Jones, Mark P.. 2002. “Engendering the Right to Participate in Decision-Making: Electoral Quotas and Women’s Leadership in Latin America.” In Gender and the Politics of Rights and Democracy in Latin America, 32–56. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, Melanie M., Paxton, Pamela, Clayton, Amanda B., and Zetterberg, Pär. 2019. “Global Gender Quota Adoption, Implementation, and Reform.” Comparative Politics 51 (2):219–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iowa Code 69.16A. 2016. https://law.justia.com/codes/iowa/2016/title-ii/chapter-69/section-69.16a/.Google Scholar
Imai, Kosuke, Kim, In Song, and Wang, Erik. 2018. Matching Methods for Causal Inference with Time-Series Cross-Section Data. Working Paper.Google Scholar
Imai, Kosuke, and Kim, In Song. 2019. “On the Use of Two-Way Fixed Effects Regression Models for Causal Inference with Panel Data.” IQSS Working Paper. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. Retrieved from https://imai.fas.harvard.edu/research/twoway.html.Google Scholar
Imai, Kosuke, and Kim, In Song. 2016. When Should We Use Linear Fixed Effects Regression Models for Causal Inference with Longitudinal Data? [Powerpoint Slides]. Department of Politics, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary, and Kernell, Samuel. 1981. Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C., and Carson, Jamie L.. 2009. The Politics of Congressional Elections. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Jordan, Marty P., and Grossmann, Matt. 2017. The Correlates of State Policy Project v.2.1. East Lansing, MI: Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR).Google Scholar
Kanthak, Kristin, and Woon, Jonathan. 2015. “Women Don’t Run? Election Aversion and Candidate Entry.” American Journal of Political Science 59 (3):595–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karp, Jeffrey A., and Banducci, Susan A.. 2008. “When Politics Is Not Just a Man’s Game: Women’s Representation and Political Engagement.” Electoral Studies 27 (1):105–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kittilson, Miki Caul. 2005. “In Support of Gender Quotas: Setting New Standards, Bringing Visible Gains.” Politics & Gender 1 (4):638–45.Google Scholar
Klarner, Carl. 2013. “Other Scholars’ Competitiveness Measures.” Harvard Dataverse 1.Google Scholar
Klarner, Carl. 2018. “State Legislative Election Returns, 1967–2016.” https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/3WZFK9, Harvard Dataverse, V3, UNF:6:pV4h1CP/B8pHthjjQThTTw==[fileUNF].Google Scholar
Koch, Jeffrey W. 1999. “Candidate Gender and Assessments of Senate Candidates.” Social Science Quarterly 84–96.Google Scholar
Krasno, Jonathan S., and Green, Donald Philip. 1988. “Preempting Quality Challengers in House Elections.” The Journal of Politics 50 (4):920–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krook, Mona Lena. 2008. “Quota Laws for Women in Politics: Implications for Feminist Practice.” Social Politics 15 (3):345–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kunovich, S., and Paxton, P.. 2005. “Pathways to Power: The Role of Political Parties in Women’s National Political Representation.” American Journal of Sociology 111 (2):505–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ladam, Christina, Harden, Jeffrey J., and Windett, Jason H.. 2018. “Prominent Role Models: High Profile Female Politicians and the Emergence of Women as Candidates for Public Office.” American Journal of Political Science 62 (2):369–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lockwood, Penelope, and Kunda, Ziva. 1997. “Superstars and Me: Predicting the Impact of Role Models on the Self.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73 (1):91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacManus, Susan A. 1996. “County Boards, Partisanship, and Elections.” The American County: Frontiers of Knowledge, edited by Menzel, Donald, 53–79. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Mahoney, Bill. “Assembly Woman Pushes for Gender Balance in Government Authorities.” Politico New York, January 19, 2018.Google Scholar
McQueen, Shannon. 2020. “Replication Data for: Pipeline or Pipedream: Gender Balance Legislation’s Effect on Women’s Presence in State Government.” UNC Dataverse. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.15139/S3/FEW2LM.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nanivadekar, Medha. 2006. “Are Quotas a Good Idea? The Indian Experience with Reserved Seats for Women.” Politics & Gender 2 (1):119–28.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 2004. Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’brien, Diana Z., and Rickne, Johanna. 2016. “Gender Quotas and Women’s Political Leadership.” American Political Science Review 110 (1):112–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osborn, Tracy. 2014. “Women State Legislators and Representation: The Role of Political Parties and Institutions.” State and Local Government Review 46 (2): 146–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preece, Jessica, and Stoddard, Olga. 2015. “Why Women Don’t Run: Experimental Evidence on Gender Differences in Political Competition Aversion.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 117:296–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rainey, Carlisle. 2014. “Arguing for a Negligible Effect.” American Journal of Political Science 58 (4):1083–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ranney, Austin. 1976. “Parties in State Politics.” In Politics in the American States, 3rd edition, eds. Jacob, H., and Vines, K.. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Rhode Island General Law 28-5.1-3.1. 2017. https://law.justia.com/codes/rhodeisland/2017/title-28/chapter-28-5.1/section-28-5.1-3.1/.Google Scholar
Reynolds, A. 1999. “Women in the Legislatures and Executives of the World: Knocking at the Highest Glass Ceiling.” World Politics 51 (4):547–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2006. “The Legislative Party and Candidate Recruitment in the American States.” Party Politics 12 (2):233–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanbonmatsu, Kira. 2010. Where Women Run: Gender and Party in the American States. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Schuirmann, Donald J. 1987. “A Comparison of the Two One-Sided Tests Procedure and the Power Approach for Assessing the Equivalence of Average Bioavailability.” Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics 15 (6):657–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwindt-Bayer, Leslie A. 2009. “Making Quotas Work: The Effect of Gender Quota Laws on the Election of Women.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 34 (1):5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sidorsky, Kaitlin. 2015. “Moving On Up? The Gendered Ambitions of State-Level Appointed Officials.” Political Research Quarterly 68 (4):802–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Thomas B. 1973. “The Policy Implementation Process.” Policy Sciences 4 (2):197–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temko, Ezra. 2019. “Navigating the Path to Presence: Ideology, Politics, and the Campaign for Gender Balanced Boards and Commissions in Iowa.”Google Scholar
Thomas, Sue. 1991. “The Impact of Women on State Legislative Policies.” The Journal of Politics 53 (4):958–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tripp, Aili Mari, and Kang, Alice. 2008. “The Global Impact of Quotas: On the Fast Track to Increased Female Legislative Representation.” Comparative Political Studies 41 (3):338–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
US Census Bureau. 2012. The Statistical Abstract of the United States. https://www.census.gov/library/publications/time-series/statistical_abstracts.html.Google Scholar
“US Laws, Codes and Statutes.” 2018. Justia Law, accessed January 2019, law.justia.com/codes/.Google Scholar
Volden, Craig, Wiseman, Alan E., and Wittmer, Dana E.. 2010. “The Legislative Effectiveness of Women in Congress.” Manuscrito, The Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Burns, Nancy, and Schlozman, Kay Lehman. 1997. “Knowing and Caring About Politics: Gender and Political Engagement.” The Journal of Politics 59 (4):1051–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Shirley, Katelyn, Harrop, and Ben, Kieffer. 2018. “Iowa Is the Only State Requiring a Gender Balance on County and State Boards. Has It Helped?” Iowa Public Radio, August 2, 2018. https://www.iowapublicradio.org/post/iowa-only-state-requiring-genderbalance-county-and-state-boards-has-it-helped#stream/0.Google Scholar
Wolbrecht, Christina, and Campbell, David E.. 2007. “Leading by Example: Female Members of Parliament as Political Role Models.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (4):921–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, Yiqing. 2016. Generalized Synthetic Control Method: Causal Inference with Interactive Fixed Effects Models (August 23, 2016). Political Analysis, Forthcoming; MIT Political Science Department Research Paper No. 2015-1. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2584200 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2584200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zetterberg, Pär. 2009. “Do Gender Quotas Foster Women’s Political Engagement? Lessons from Latin America.” Political Research Quarterly 62 (4):715–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

McQueen Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.15139/S3/FEW2LM
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

McQueen supplementary material

Appendix

Download McQueen supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 786.3 KB