Are We Progressing Toward Equal Representation for Women in the Minnesota Legislature? New Evidence Offers Mixed Results Sally J

University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Political Science Department Faculty Publication Political Science Series 2009 Are We Progressing Toward Equal Representation for Women in the Minnesota Legislature? New Evidence Offers Mixed Results Sally J. Kenney University of Minnesota Kathryn Pearson University of Minnesota Debra Fitzpatrick University of Minnesota Elizabeth Sharrow University of Massachusetts - Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/polsci_faculty_pubs Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Kenney, Sally J.; Pearson, Kathryn; Fitzpatrick, Debra; and Sharrow, Elizabeth, "Are We Progressing Toward Equal Representation for Women in the Minnesota Legislature? New Evidence Offers Mixed Results" (2009). Center for Urban and Regional Affairs Reporter. 126. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.umass.edu/polsci_faculty_pubs/126 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Political Science at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science Department Faculty Publication Series by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Are We Progressing Toward Equal Representation for Women in the Minnesota Legislature? New Evidence Offers Mixed Results by Sally J. Kenney, Kathryn Pearson, Debra Fitzpatrick, and Elizabeth Sharrow Photo by Tom Photo Olmscheid, by courtesy Tom of Minnesota House Public Information Services . All rights reserved . State representative Alice Hausman (DFL-St. Paul) addressing the Minnesota House of Representatives. he candidacies of Hillary Clinton United States ranks 71st in the world for that progress has been made, but also and Sarah Palin in the 2008 elec- the percentage of women serving in the that there is still a long way to go. More Ttion are evidence that women are lower legislative chamber, ranking behind worrying, however, is that that progress making progress politically. Minnesotans Iraq, Pakistan, and China. In the United seems to have stalled. Although increases can be proud that women constitute States, women are more likely to serve in the number of women in Congress can almost 35% of the state legislature, the in the state legislature; yet according to be celebrated, the percentage increased by fourth highest level in the country. the Center for American Women and only 1% in 2008. Similarly, in Minnesota, Alongside this good news, however, Politics, only 24% of state legislators in the number of women in the legislature are more sobering numbers. Women the United States are women. Although (70) plateaued from 2006 to 2008 (Figure continue to be underrepresented in 14.8% of Minnesota’s mayors and 27.3% 1). During the past decade, women have elected office at the national, state, and of its city-council members are women, gained only 8 seats out of 201 in the local levels, whether one compares their half of Minnesota’s county commissions Minnesota legislature. numbers with the population as a whole include no women.1 The evidence shows Gender shapes campaigns for all or to the qualified labor pool. In 2009, a offices, but in different ways, depending record number of women were serving in 1 Legislative Commission on the Economic Status on the level of office, the regional the U.S. Congress, yet women constituted of Women, “Women in Elected Offices of Local demographics, and the electoral rules. Governments in Minnesota, 2009,” only 17% of its membership. According www.commissions.leg.state.mn.us/oesw For example, research by the Barbara to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the /wmnpuboff/localgov09ve.pdf. Lee Family Foundation has shown that FALL/WINTER 2009 39 women have more success seeking Figure 1. Women Elected to the Minnesota Legislature in General Elections, legislative than executive office. In 1996–2008 Minnesota, women enjoy more success seeking some local offices (school board 80 and city council) than others (county commissioner and mayor). Systematic 70 analysis of all congressional districts reveals that certain types of districts are more “women friendly” than others.2 60 Women’s representation in state legisla- tures varies enormously, from a majority 50 in the New Hampshire Senate to zero in the South Carolina Senate. Moreover, our observations suggest that the pipe- 40 line itself may be gendered. The path to Number mayor for a man may be through the 30 city council, yet women may not enjoy success through the same pathway. 20 Finally, gender differences in party gatekeeping and recruitment may vary by constituency and office; parties may 10 recruit women for urban but not rural seats, and for legislative but not execu- 0 tive offices. 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 Voter discrimination against women Year no longer explains women’s underrep- resentation in elected office, although Note: Data represent House and Senate legislators combined . candidates and analysts allege gender Source: Legislative Coordinating Commission, Office on the Economic Status of Women, “Status Report: Women bias in particular races (most recently, in the Minnesota Legislature, 2009,” www .commissions .leg .state .mn .us/oesw/wmnpuboff/2008 .pdf . Hillary Clinton’s run in the 2008 Demo- cratic presidential primary).3 Exten- for Minnesota legislative campaigns included many of the same candidates sive research across multiple elections since 1997. This data set allows, for the in multiple election years. Although demonstrates that when women are first time, the opportunity to analyze Minnesota elections often include candidates in congressional primaries,4 whether gender affects electoral success third-party candidates, 2,516 candidates and run in general elections as chal- in the state of Minnesota. The research (90.5%) in our data set were major-party lengers, incumbents, and open-seat upon which this article is based was candidates, i.e., Democrats (DFL) or contestants,5 they win at the same rate supported in part through a grant from Republicans (GOP). We conducted our as men, when accounting for incum- CURA’s New Initiative program. Addi- analysis only on candidates from these bency. No systematic analysis has deter- tional funding was provided by the two major parties. mined whether these gender-neutral Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, the We compiled the initial list from results hold in Minnesota’s state legisla- University of Minnesota’s Grant-in-Aid all candidates who registered their tive races. of Research, Artistry and Scholarship campaign committee with the Minne- We analyzed an original, compre- Program, the Hubert H. Humphrey sota Campaign Finance and Public hensive set of candidate-level data Institute of Public Affairs; and the Disclosure Board. We augmented this Department of Political Science at the list with information from the Minne- University of Minnesota. sota Secretary of State Election Results 2 B. Palmer and D. Simon, Breaking the Political Glass Ceiling: Women and Congressional Elections and Statistics website to ensure that we (New York: Routledge, 2006). Methodology included all candidates receiving votes 3 See Politics & Gender’s Critical Perspectives We created the Minnesota Legislative in primary and general elections in the on Gender and Politics section on the 2008 Candidate Database to analyze Minne- full data set. We collected vote share, presidential race, Politics & Gender 5 (2009): 69–110, particularly the article by L. Huddy and T.E. Carey, sota state legislative campaigns from party identification, and incumbency “Group Politics Redux: Race and Gender in the 1997 through 2008. The candidate- status from the Minnesota Secretary 2008 Democratic Presidential Primaries,” Politics & level data set contained 2,780 cases, of State and the Minnesota Legisla- Gender 5 (2009): 81–96. including all general election candi- ture online resources. We ascertained 4 J.L. Lawless and K. Pearson, “The Primary Reason dates, all primary candidates, and candidate gender through name iden- for Women’s Under-Representation? Re-Evaluating the Conventional Wisdom,” The Journal of Politics candidates who filed but dropped tification and online searches of local 70 (2008):67–82. out before their primary election in media surrounding the campaign. We 5 Examples include R.L. Fox, “Congressional each legislative-election cycle over the identified candidates who ran in the Elections: Where Are We on the Road to Gender 11-year period, along with candidates preprimary stage as those registered with Parity?” in S.J. Carroll and R.L. Fox (editors), Gender and Elections: Shaping the Future of in a handful of special elections. Of the the Minnesota Campaign Finance and American Politics (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge 2,780 candidates running in state legis- Public Disclosure Board, because neither University Press, 2006); and R.K. Gaddie and lative elections from 1997 to 2008, 735 state officials nor local political parties C.S. Bullock, III, Elections to Open Seats in the U.S. House (Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield were women (26.4%). Our unit of anal- collect or maintain endorsement infor- Publishers, 2000). ysis was candidate-year, so the data set mation. We obtained campaign-finance 40 CURA REPORTER data from the National Institute on responded, 38% of Republicans), and number has slightly fallen (Figure 2). Money in State Politics. legislative chamber (49% of House Women’s candidacies in House general We also collected district-level infor- candidates

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