Women in State Legislatures: Explaining Differences Among States

The proportion of women elected to state legislatures varies greatly across states with a high of thirty-seven percent (Colorado, New Hampshire and Vermont) to a low of ten percent (South Carolina). Much of the research that has sought to explain women's electoral success often focuses on individual level variables, including more recently, the effect of personal ambition. With regard to state-level variables, recent research has considered a state's overall political ideology, type of legislature (e.g. professional or not), proportion of women in the eligibility pool to explain the electoral success of women in state legislatures, for example. However, there seems to exist a gap in the literature where research has thus far failed to consider the symbolic importance of women elected and serving in higher, state-level elected offices as well as the proportion of women in a state's national delegation. Our research explores the notion of symbolic representation as a motivator for women to enter the pipeline and vie for lower level offices. We hypothesize that in states with women elected to the executive level or with a large proportion of a women elected to the national delegation will yield positive symbolic effect and, as a result, a greater number of women will decide to enter into the pipeline and run for lower level offices at the state or local level.