The Role of a Gendered Policy Agenda in Closing the Mayoral Ambition Gap
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Journal of Research on Women andJournal Gender of Research 81 on Women and Gender The role of a gendered policy agenda Volume 6, 81-93 © The Author(s) 2015, 2016 in closing the mayoral ambition gap: Reprints and Permission: email [email protected] Texas Digital Library: The case of Texas female city council members http://www.tdl.org Darlene Budd, Angelique Myers, and Thomas Longoria Abstract This study explores female city council member political ambition to run for mayor. Women who hold mayoral office are potentially more competitive for higher elected office at the state and federal level. This study is based on a survey sent to Texas city council members in cities over 30,000. Forty-one percent of respondents said they would most likely run for mayor at some point, and we do find a gender gap in ambition (50% of men and 36% of women). However, we find that women who advocated a gendered local government political agenda exhibited higher levels of political ambition compared women who do not, and the ambition gap is reduced significantly. This finding holds up, controlling for other factors suggested by the literature that are predictors of political ambition. Two of these other factors—age and personal support—also increase city council member mayoral ambition. The findings are dis- cussed in terms of strategies to increase female mayoral ambition. Keywords political science, women’s studies, sociology, political ambition, gender, local government he underrepresentation of women representation through education, leader- in the United States occurs at the ship training, and networking. However, the national, state, and local levels of barriers women face when considering run- Tgovernment. Addressing the representation- ning for office appear to overwhelm these al gender gap has received much attention supportive efforts. from scholars as well as groups intent on Political ambition is enhanced by past reversing this unfortunate fact. Women’s or- success and having the ability to represent ganizations—notably EMILY’s List, WISH an image of experience and authority. Ac- List, and more recently, Project GROW— cordingly, this article posits that one way have provided assistance to increase female to address representation gaps at the federal representation at the state and national lev- and state levels is to increase the number of el, and have been successful to some extent. female mayors. Women who serve as may- Women also receive support from a growing or have demonstrated executive leadership number of nonprofit organizations whose qualities and experience that make them po- mission is to empower women and increase tentially more competitive for higher office. Journal of Research on Women and Gender 82 However, of the 1,351 mayors of U.S. cities factors close the mayoral ambition gap. Fe- with populations over 30,000 in 2014, only male elected officials should be encouraged 18.4% were women (CAWP, 2013). The to pursue a gendered policy agenda. Such an purpose of this study is to explore some of approach contributes to enhanced ambition the factors that influence female city council and, when framed strategically, resonates member ambition to run for mayor. positively among voters and results in wom- Political ambition, specifically the deci- en holding a higher percentage of mayoral sion to run for office, may be viewed as a offices. strategic response to a political opportuni- ty structure (Schlesinger, 1966). A function Literature Review of an individual’s personal attributes, per- sonalities, and motivations (Fishel, 1971), political ambition consists of two stages or This study focuses on the political am- forms: nascent and expressive. Nascent am- bition of female city council members—a bition is a potential interest in seeking of- generally understudied group. The political fice and precedes expressive ambition, the ambition of city council women to run for actual act of deciding to run for office (Fox mayor is also relevant because the position & Lawless, 2012, p. 5). Most of the factors of mayor often serves as a stepping-stone involving nascent ambition are psycholog- to higher-level political positions (McGlen ical, social, and personal. Strategic consid- et al., 2011). In order to increase the per- erations such as term limits, electoral struc- centage of women holding statewide office ture, and the possibility of electoral success and in-state legislatures and Congress, more are discrete factors that influence candidate women are needed in the “pipeline.” Wom- ambition (Black, 1972). Ideology and a de- en gain experience and hone their skills in sire to change public policy are intangibles local level offices that are more within reach that often serve as powerful catalysts driving in terms of time and money. The literature political participation (Burns, Schlozman, on political ambition is adapted to the case & Verba, 2001). Growing up in a political of city council members in the remainder of family (Flanigan & Zingale, 2002), having this section and hypotheses are proposed. the support of political mentors (Wobrecht & Campbell, 2007) and community organi- » Attitudes and Issues zations (Costantini, 1990), as well as over- Some women are motivated to run for all social interactions (McClurg, 2003) help office by the desire to increase awareness of cultivate individual political ambition. policy issues neglected by male candidates Existing research and previous studies and elected officials.Gendered public poli- of these explanatory variables informed the cy priorities emerge in part due to personal creation of a survey administered to city experience with a problem or policy matter council members in Texas cities over 30,000. and efforts to initiate change or improve- This study finds that a female city council ment (Kathlene, 1989, p. 412). The policy member’s policy priorities are an important issues that often motivate women to become predictor of mayoral ambition. In addition politically active are traditionally viewed to holding gendered policy priorities, per- as “women’s issues,” including: education, ceived levels of personal support predict health care, environment, consumer protec- higher levels of political ambition. These tion, helping under-served populations, and Journal of Research on Women and Gender 83 equal rights (Brown, Heighberger, & Shock- to local government. There are several rea- et, 1993). The desire to change public policy sons for this lower level of attention. First, plays a considerably larger role in the deci- local elections are often nonpartisan and sion of women to run for office compared have very low levels of voter turnout, there- to men. Specifically, women mayors more by reducing the visibility of these offices. In often rated their concern over specific poli- addition, in many cities, the council-man- cy issues as most important in their decision ager form of government used in most cities to seek their first municipal office and were reduces the influence of the mayor and city more likely than men to have specific policy council and vests more power in the hands concerns (Carroll & Sanbonmatsu, 2010). of the city manager, reducing the perceived A campaign focused on traditional relevance of city council members. Finally, “women’s issues” targeted at women voters some urbanists have observed that local gov- has produced electoral successes for female ernments have a “unitary interest” in eco- candidates (Herrndon et al., 2003). Female nomic growth and therefore are more likely candidates provide a level of assurance to to prefer “apolitical” developmental and al- many female voters that their interests are locational policies over redistributive poli- represented. While men could arguably rep- cies that are believed to undermine econom- resent the interests of women, female legis- ic growth (Peterson, 1981; Longoria, 1994). lators introduce and vote for legislation that Gender-role attitudes, as a dimension of positively affects women and families more political culture, play an important role in often than male legislators (Thomas, 1990). the decision of a woman to consider running Controlling for party, women legislators also for mayor. Political culture, defined as “the engage in more intense and frequent legis- particular pattern of orientation to political lative action reflecting women’s experiences action in which each political system is em- and concerns (Swers, 2002). As a result, fe- bedded” (Elazar, 1966, p. 78), is at least as male candidates can benefit by running “as important as the electoral system in predict- women” and calling attention to their unique ing the presence and percentage of women qualities and interests (Stokes-Brown et al., city council members and mayors (Smith et 2008). The role these dynamics play in the al., 2012, p. 315). For example, states with nonpartisan local government context where a tradition of gender equity are much more attention to “women’s issues” is less com- likely to see women succeed in elections mon is not clear. To the extent that having (Windett, 2011) and have a higher percent- a woman on the ballot attracts the attention age of women in the legislature (Arceneaux, of more female voters and increases political 2001). Just like states, there are local-level participation among women (Herrndon et differences in gender-role attitudes. In some al., 2003) suggests that women candidates localities, voters and elites have been social- help to mobilize women voters at the local ized to view politics as a man’s world (Car- level. roll & Sanbonmatsu, 2009; Sapiro, 1983), Gendered policy priorities are particular- whereas in other communities this is not the ly relevant and important at the local level case. For these reasons, past female electoral of government. However, while the connec- success is a potential indicator of a favorable tion between gendered political views and political culture where voters have experi- ambition has been examined at other levels enced women as capable political executives, of government, less attention has been paid and are more likely to support women can- Journal of Research on Women and Gender 84 didates in the future.