Who’s Got the Power? Putting Individual and Institutional Power in Their Collective Place

Abstract

Increasing women’s representation in state legislatures promotes inclusive perspectives, which is expected to improve substantive policy outcomes for women. Although scholars show that women legislators consistently raise awareness to “women’s interests,” it isn’t clear whether women legislators are as successful as men, racial majority men in particular, at moving their legislation through the legislative process. Focusing on a policy area that has traditionally been defined as a women’s policy area—education—I consider how well women and men do in a policy area of women’s perceived expertise. Assessing race-gender differences in legislative success, I examine whether men’s support helps other legislators overcome barriers in the legislative process, increasing their probability of success. To that end, I collect and analyze 4,237 education bills, the bill’s sponsor and cosponsors, in four state legislatures—Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, and Michigan—over seven two-year legislative terms (2003-2016). I find that men and women legislators of all races and ethnicities care about education policy, but there are important intersectional differences. Moreover, I find that women legislators are less successful in education policy compared to their racial majority colleagues. And lastly, in contrast to previous research, preliminary results suggest that the race-gender composition of a bill’s supporters (“cosponsors”) affect legislative success.