Abstract
Widening, asymmetric polarization is evident in both the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. Recent work unveils a new dimension to this polarization story: newly elected Republican women are driving this polarization. Women are more likely to legislate on women’s issues than men, yet women’s shared interest in representing women doesn’t preclude their identity as partisans. In this article, we explore the effect of today’s political climate on state legislators’ policy representation of women’s issues. We ask what effect does gendered polarization have on women’s issues? To test this, we evaluate bill sponsorship in the states on the quintessential “women’s issue” of abortion. Our research design focuses on bill introductions and uses on an original dataset of pro- and anti-abortion rights bill introductions, which we analyze using an event count model. We find that overall polarization leads to the introduction of fewer restrictive abortion bills, but as polarization between women lawmakers grows, legislators are more likely to introduce anti-abortion rights legislation. Gender polarization has consequences on the types of bills legislators introduce and for how scholars should study polarization.
Data sources.
| Variable | Measurement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Gender polarization | Difference between median Democrat women and median Republican women across both chambers | Shor and McCarty 2011 |
| Legislative polarization | Difference between median Democrat and median Republican across both chambers | Shor and McCarty 2011 |
| Any type of women’s caucus | 1 = any form of a women’s caucus in the state 0 = no women’s caucus in the state | Mahoney 2018 |
| Republican control of legislature | Indicator variable for unified Republican control of the legislature for the anti-abortion rights | Klarner et al. 2013 |
| Democrat control of legislature | Indicator variable for unified Democratic control of the legislature for the pro-abortion rights | Klarner et al. 2013 |
| Percent democratic women in legislature | Percent Democratic Women in Legislature | CAWP 2001 |
| Percent republican women in legislature | Percent Republican Women in Legislature | CAWP 2001 |
| State ideology | State Government Ideology, 1960–2017 % of Presidential Vote Share – Bush 2000 | Berry et al. 2013, 1998 |
| Wright, Osborn,Winburn 2004 |
Polarization over time.
| Gender polarization | |||
| 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | |
| Min. | 0.527 | 0.117 | 0.414 |
| Mean | 1.350 | 1.389 | 1.531 |
| Max. | 2.704 | 2.712 | 3.27 |
| Legislative polarization | |||
| 2000 | 2005 | 2010 | |
| Min. | 0.453 | 0.453 | 0.516 |
| Mean | 1.231 | 1.231 | 1.483 |
| Max. | 2.653 | 2.653 | 3.165 |
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