Shattering the Marble Ceiling: A Research Note on Women-Friendly State Legislative Districts

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social science quarterly 2016-11, Vol.97 (5), p.1108-1118
Main Authors: Pyeatt, Nicholas, Yanus, Alixandra B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Congressional elections
Crosscultural analysis
Data analysis
Election results
Elections
Females
Indexes
Legislative districts
Legislators
Legislatures
Political culture
Political science
Politics
Prediction
Women
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0038-4941
1540-6237
DOI:10.1111/ssqu.12294