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It is well established that the race and gender of elected
representatives influence the ways in which they legislate, but
surprisingly little research exists on how race and gender interact
to affect who is elected and how they behave once in office. How do
race and gender affect who gets elected, as well as who is
represented? What issues do elected representatives prioritize?
Does diversity in representation make a difference? Race, Gender,
and Political Representation takes up the call to think about
representation in the United States as intersectional, and it
measures the extent to which political representation is
simultaneously gendered and raced. Specifically, the book examines
how race and gender interact to affect the election, behavior, and
impact of all individuals. By putting women of color at the center
of their analysis and re-evaluating traditional, "single-axis"
approaches to studying the politics of race or gender, the authors
demonstrate what an intersectional approach to identity politics
can reveal. Drawing on original data on the presence, policy
leadership, and policy impact of Black women and men, Latinas and
Latinos, and White women and men in state legislative office in the
late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, each chapter shows
how the politics of race, gender, and representation are far more
complex than recurring "Year of the Woman" frameworks suggest. An
array of race-gender similarities and differences are evident in
the experiences, activities, and accomplishments of these state
legislators. Yet one thing is clear: the representation of those
marginalized by multiple, intersecting systems of power and
inequality is intricately bound to the representation of women of
color.
It is well established that the race and gender of elected
representatives influence the ways in which they legislate, but
surprisingly little research exists on how race and gender interact
to affect who is elected and how they behave once in office. How do
race and gender affect who gets elected, as well as who is
represented? What issues do elected representatives prioritize?
Does diversity in representation make a difference? Race, Gender,
and Political Representation takes up the call to think about
representation in the United States as intersectional, and it
measures the extent to which political representation is
simultaneously gendered and raced. Specifically, the book examines
how race and gender interact to affect the election, behavior, and
impact of all individuals. By putting women of color at the center
of their analysis and re-evaluating traditional, "single-axis"
approaches to studying the politics of race or gender, the authors
demonstrate what an intersectional approach to identity politics
can reveal. Drawing on original data on the presence, policy
leadership, and policy impact of Black women and men, Latinas and
Latinos, and White women and men in state legislative office in the
late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, each chapter shows
how the politics of race, gender, and representation are far more
complex than recurring "Year of the Woman" frameworks suggest. An
array of race-gender similarities and differences are evident in
the experiences, activities, and accomplishments of these state
legislators. Yet one thing is clear: the representation of those
marginalized by multiple, intersecting systems of power and
inequality is intricately bound to the representation of women of
color.
Women in public office are often assumed to ""make a difference""
for women, as women--in other words, to represent their female
constituents better than do their male counterparts. But is sex
really an accurate predictor of a legislator's political choices
and actions? In this book, Beth Reingold compares the
representational activities and attitudes of male and female
members of the Arizona and California state legislatures to
illuminate the broader implications of the election and integration
of women into public office. In the process, she challenges many of
the assumptions that underlie popular expectations of women and men
in politics. Using in-depth interviews, survey responses, and
legislative records, Reingold actually uncovers more similarities
between female and male politicians than differences. Moreover, the
stories she presents strongly suggest that rather than assuming
that who our representatives are determines what they will do in
office, we must acknowledge the possibility that the influence of
gender on legislative behavior can be weakened, distorted, or
accentuated by powerful forces within the social and political
contexts of elective office. |This comparative study examines the
behavior of male and female members of the Arizona and California
state legislatures to investigate whether who our representatives
are determines what they will do. Beth Reingold challenges many of
the assumptions that underlie popular expectations of women and men
in politics.
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