UC Davis

The literature studying women in politics is growing rapidly, with previous scholarship focusing on women running for office (e.g., studies of women’s decision to run, their success as candidates and voters’ perceptions of them), and women’s behavior in office. To date, however, there is little consensus about the primary mechanisms underlying the effects of institutions on the political behavior of women. Using a mixed method approach, this dissertation examines the interaction between gender and institutions, as well as the extent to which such interactions effect the legislative performance of women. Chapter one uses a multi-stage experimental design that considers how features of legislative settings, such as preference heterogeneity, gender composition, deliberation, or agenda power, might interact with gender to influence legislative behavior. The chapter offers a unique insight into the policy priorities of representatives. I also find that institutional settings, such as gender of group compositions, aided by the heterogeneity in individual preferences, positively influence women’s legislative performance. The implication of these findings is that the effects of gender on legislative behavior are conditioned on the institutional environment within which men and women pursue their political goals. Chapter two examines whether the presence of partisan team incentives help or hinder women, relative to men. The research design is similar to chapter one, except I manipulate the presence or absence of team-based incentives. I find that institutional settings such as the presence or absence of team-based incentives impacts men and women differently when it comes to agenda setting, deliberation, and performance. This research highlights women do just as well as men, if not better, in partisan or team-based environments. Chapter three systematically examine the legislative effectiveness of minority women in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973-2020. There is still a very limited understanding about the behavior of women of color. This research fills in the gap that exists in various literatures of legislative effectiveness and provides insight as to what can be expected not just of minorities or women, but of minority women representatives. I find that once I account for the differences that may exist between minority women and other groups within Congress through a rigorous matching design, favorable characteristics of minority women make them more effective than minority men. Furthermore, constituency differences that exist between minority women and white women makes it so that minority women are more effective that white women when it comes to constituency service. This dissertation project makes numerous contributions to the study of women in politics. I fill in the gap regarding expectations for the minority women, using a mixed methods approach to assess the effectiveness of minority women. I provide insight into the legislative performance of female legislators (and their policy preferences) through experimental research that manipulates institutional settings such as group composition, partisan environments, and deliberation. All the while building on theoretical expectations by directly highlighting the political experiences of sitting female legislators. Ultimately, this research indicates that while institutional settings, such as group composition matter, female legislatures can succeed no matter the type of partisan institutions within which they find themselves.