Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This study engages the debate over descriptive representation by attempting to isolate the conditions in which the presence of a descriptive representative will influence the policy process and the factors that contribute to variation in that influence. By examining the agenda-setting activities of bill sponsorship and cosponsorship to determine if female representatives are more likely to act as legislative entrepreneurs on women’s issues than are their male colleagues, I find that congresswomen devote a larger proportion of their overall legislative agenda to sponsorship and cosponsorship of women’s issue initiatives, particularly feminist proposals. The differences in legislative behavior were greater in the area of bill sponsorship than cosponsorship demonstrating that the impact of descriptive representation is most significant in those areas that require the greatest expenditures of resources and incur larger opportunity costs for participation in other areas. Finally, I illustrate how changes in the institutional and political contexts impact members’ decisions concerning whether to pursue women’s issue initiatives.