Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: There is much debate about the extent to which the roll call voting patterns of male and female legislators differ. This is due in large part due to the fact that the models used to examine this question lack independent measures of ideology; as gender, party and ideology are highly intertwined, it is difficult to tell definitively if female legislators vote more liberally because they tend to be more liberal, because they tend to be Democratic or because they are female. Using direct measures of ideology from a survey of state legislators in five states, I examine the differences in roll call voting overall and in numerous issue areas. The results suggest that gender does not exert a direct, independent influence on roll call voting. Of course, the gender may have an indirect influence, but when male and female legislators have similar beliefs and similar partisanship, they tend to vote similarly.