Shattering the Marble Ceiling: A Research Note on Women‐Friendly State Legislative Districts*
All data and coding will be made available from the authors by request. A previous version of this article was presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the State Politics and Policy Section of the American Political Science Association, Bloomington, IN, May 15–17. The authors gratefully acknowledge Kristin Kanthak and Adam Chamberlain for their thoughtful comments.
Abstract
Objective
Palmer and Simon's (2008) “women‐friendly” district index has proven a useful theoretical and empirical construct for researchers studying congressional elections. In one parsimonious measure, the authors capture 12 factors predicting women's election to the House of Representatives. The construct's utility in other political contexts, however, has not yet been tested.
Methods
We test the women‐friendliness index using a new data set on state legislative elections.
Results
We find that the women‐friendly district index is useful for predicting the election of women in state legislatures. The index's predictive power is robust to institutional variations and surpasses other contextual indicators, such as political culture.
Conclusions
Our analysis suggests that “women friendliness” is a useful empirical concept with application in multiple political contexts.
Citing Literature
Number of times cited according to CrossRef: 7
- Nicholas Pyeatt, Alixandra B. Yanus, Will Americans Really Vote for a Woman President? Aggregate Gender Bias in the 2016 Presidential Election , Representation, 10.1080/00344893.2020.1754892, (1-16), (2020).
- Nicholas L. Pyeatt, Alixandra B. Yanus, Religious Adherence, Women-Friendliness, and Representation in American State Legislatures, Politics and Religion, 10.1017/S1755048319000476, (1-28), (2020).
- Nicholas Pyeatt, Alixandra B. Yanus, It's All Relative: Understanding “Women Friendliness” Between and Within States, Social Science Quarterly, 10.1111/ssqu.12708, 100, 6, (2391-2407), (2019).
- Tracy Osborn, Rebecca J. Kreitzer, Emily U. Schilling, Jennifer Hayes Clark, Ideology and Polarization Among Women State Legislators, Legislative Studies Quarterly, 10.1111/lsq.12243, 44, 4, (647-680), (2019).
- Danielle M. Thomsen, Bailey K. Sanders, Gender Differences in Legislator Responsiveness, Perspectives on Politics, 10.1017/S1537592719003414, (1-14), (2019).
- Sarah John, Haley Smith, Elizabeth Zack, The alternative vote: Do changes in single-member voting systems affect descriptive representation of women and minorities?, Electoral Studies, 10.1016/j.electstud.2018.05.009, 54, (90-102), (2018).
- Nicholas Pyeatt, Alixandra B. Yanus, Increasing Women’s Political Participation: The Role of Women-Friendly Districts, Representation, 10.1080/00344893.2018.1438306, 53, 3-4, (185-199), (2018).
