Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T13:12:51.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Theorizing Women's Representation in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 September 2007

Suzanne Dovi
Suzanne Dovi
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

From the perspective of women's experiences, it is easy to see that democratic representative institutions can be tools of oppression. After all, formal democratic institutions have been either a form of governance that has only ruled over women (e.g., women were formally prohibited from holding elected offices) or a form of governance in which women have ruled and been ruled unequally (e.g., the number of female representatives have been significantly lower than the number of male representatives). Moreover, informal representative institutions, for example, interest groups, do not seem to work for women as well as they do for powerful men (Strolovitch 2007). These facts suggest that democratic representative institutions need to be viewed suspiciously. We should not assume that representative institutions in democracies necessarily benefit all women. We need to recognize how they can divide women, pitting some women's interests and preferences against other women's interests and preferences. Democratic representative institutions can function to preserve the status quo, distributing benefits unjustly among different men and women.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 297 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achen, Christopher. 1975. “Mass Political Attitudes and the Survey Response.” American Political Science Review 69 (December): 1218–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acker, Joan. 2000. “Revisiting Class: Thinking from Gender, Race, and Organizations.” Social Politics 7 (Summer): 192–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkeson, Lonna Rae. 2003. “Not All Cues Are Created Equal: The Conditional Impact of Female Candidates on Political Engagement.” Journal of Politics 65 (4): 1040–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barry, Brian. [1965]1990. Political Argument, 2d ed. Herefordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf.Google Scholar
Burns, Nancy, Schlozman, Kay, and Verba, Sidney. 2001. The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Campbell, David, and Wolbrecht, Christina. 2006. “See Jane Run: Women Politicians as Role Models for Adolescents.” Journal of Politics 68 (2): 233–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Childs, Sarah. 2006. “The Complicated Relationship between Women's Descriptive and Substantive Representation.” European Journal of Women's Studies 13 (1): 7–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Childs, Sarah, and Krook, Mona Lena. 2006. “Gender and Politics: The State of the Art.” Politics 26: 18–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Cathy. 1999. The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Cathy, Jones, Kathleen B., and Tronto, Joan C., eds. 1997. Women Transforming Politics. New York: NYU Press.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia. 2000. “It's All in the Family: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Nation.” In Decentering the Center: Philosophy for a Multicultural, Post-Colonial, and Feminist World, ed. Narayan, Uma and Harding, Sandra. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press: 156–76.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1989. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Anti-Discrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” University of Chicago Legal Forum 139–67.Google Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1991. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” Stanford Law Review 43 (6)(July): 1241–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Beauvoir, Simone. 1952. The Second Sex. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Diamond, Irene, and Hartstock, Nancy. 1991. “Beyond Interests in Politics: A Comment on Virginia Sapiro's ‘When Are Interests Interesting? The Problem of Political Representation of Women.’” American Political Science Review 75 (September): 717–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Stefano, Christine. 1997. “Integrating Gender into the Political Science Curriculum: Challenges, Pitfalls, and Opportunities.” PS: Political Science and Politics 30 (June): 204–6.Google Scholar
Dodson, Debra. 2006. The Impact of Women in Congress. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dovi, Suzanne. 2002. “Preferable Descriptive Representatives: Or Will Just Any Woman, Black, or Latino Do?” American Political Science Review 96 (December): 745–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dovi, Suzanne. 2007. The Good Representative. New York: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Driscoll, Amanda, and Kanthak, Kristin. N.d. “Patterns of Colleague Support in the U.S. House: Why Democrats Have an ‘Old Girls Network,’ but Republican Women Want to be ‘Just One of the Boys.’” University of Arizona. Unpublished typescript.Google Scholar
Dryzek, John. 1996. “Political Inclusion and the Dynamics of Democratization.” American Political Science Review 90 (September): 475–87.Google Scholar
Duerst-Lahti, Georgia and Kelly, Rita Mae, eds. 1995. Gender Power, Leadership and Governance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elshtain, Jean Bethke. 1981. Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fact Sheet on Women in Elective Office 2007. Center for American Women and Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University. http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/Facts.html#elective (March 9, 2007).Google Scholar
Ferguson, Kathy. 1984. The Feminist Case Against Bureaucracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Fuss, Diana. 1989. Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature & Difference. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gay, Claudine. 2002. “Spirals of Trust? The Effect of Descriptive Representation on the Relationship between Citizens and their Government.” American Journal of Political Science 46 (October): 717–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gould, Carol. 1996. “Diversity and Democracy: Representing Differences.” In Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, ed. Benhabib, Seyla.Princeton: Princeton University Press, 171–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, Ruth, and Keohane, Robert O.. 2005. “Accountability and Abuses of Power in World Politics.” American Political Science Review 99 (February): 29–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hancock, Ange-Marie. 2007. “When Multiplication Doesn't Equal Quick Addition: Examining Intersectionality as a Research Paradigm.” Perspectives on Politics 5 (1): 63–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Htun, Mala. 2004. “Is Gender Like Ethnicity? The Political Representation of Identity Groups.” Perspectives on Politics 2 (September): 439–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald, and Norris, Pippa. 2003. Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, Kent. 1983. “Gender Roles and Inequalities in Political Participation: Results from an Eight-Nation Study.” Western Political Quarterly 36 (September): 364–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Cathy Marie, Duerst-Lahti, Georgia, and Norton, Noelle H.. 2007. Creating Gender: The Sexual Politics of Welfare Policy. London and Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Jonasdottir, Anna G. 1989. “On the Concept of Interest, Women's Interests, and the Limitations of Interest Theory.” In The Political Interests of Gender: Developing Theory and Research with a Feminist Face, ed. Jonasdottir, Anna G. and Jones, Kathleen B.. New York: Sage, 33–65.Google Scholar
Landes, Joan. 1988. Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lipman-Blumen, Jean. 1984. Gender Roles and Power. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Lovenduski, Joni, and Norris, Pippa. 2003 “Westminster Women: The Politics of Presence.” Political Studies 51 (1): 84–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacKinnon, Catharine. 1987. Feminism Unmodified. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Mann, Patricia. 1997. “Musing as a Feminist in a Postfeminist Era.” In Feminism and the New Democracy: Re-siting the Political, ed. Dean, Jodi. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 222–42.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 1999. “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women? A Contingent ‘Yes.’” Journal of Politics 61 (3): 628–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane. 2003. “Rethinking Representation.” American Political Science Review 97 (4)(November): 515–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCall, Leslie. 2005. “The Complexity of Intersectionality.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30 (3): 1771–1800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moi, Toril. 2002. Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory. 2d ed. New York: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Mouffe, Chantal. 1992. Dimensions of Radical Democracy: Pluralism, Citizenship, Community. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Nelson, Barbara J., and Chowdhury, Najma. 1994. Women and Politics Worldwide. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 1995. Political Recruitment: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa. 2000. “Women's Representation and Electoral Systems.” In The International Encyclopedia of Elections, ed. Rose, Richard. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 348–51.Google Scholar
Norris, Pippa, and Lovenduski, Joni. 1989. “Women Candidates for Parliament: Transforming the Agenda?” British Journal of Political Science 19 (1): 106–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okin, Susan Moller. 1989. Justice, Gender and the Family. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1970: Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, Anne. 1991. Engendering Democracy. New York: Polity.Google Scholar
Phillips, Anne. 1995. Politics of Presence. New York: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Phillips, Anne. 1998. “Democracy and Representation: Or, Why Should It Matter Who Our Representatives Are?” Feminism and Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 224–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitkin, Hanna. 1967. The Concept of Representation. Los Angeles: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randall, Vicki. 2002. “Feminism.” In Theory and Methods in Political Science, ed. Marsh, David and Stoker, Gerry. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Reed, Adolph Jr. 1986. Race, Politics and Culture. New York: Greenwood.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rehfeld, Andrew. 2006. “Toward a General Theory of Political Representation.” Journal of Politics 68 (February): 1–21.Google Scholar
Reingold, Beth. 2000. Representing Women. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Cindy. 2002. Women Transforming Congress. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Sapiro, Virginia. 1979. “Women's Studies and Political Conflict.” In The Prism of Sex: Essays in the Sociology of Knowledge, ed. Sherman, Julia A. and Beck, Evelyn Torton. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 253–66.Google Scholar
Sapiro, Virginia. 1981. “When are Interests Interesting?” American Political Science Review 75 (September): 701–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sapiro, Virginia. 1987. “What Research on the Political Socialization of Women Can Tell Us about the Political Socialization of People.” In The Impact of Feminist Research in the Academy, ed. Farnham, Christie. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 148–73.Google Scholar
Sapiro, Virginia. 1991. “Gender Politics, Gendered Politics: The State of the Field.” In Political Science: Looking to the Future in the Theory and Practice of Political Science, ed. Crotty, William. Evanston, IL: Northampton, 165–88.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph. 1976. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Schwindt-Bayer, Leslie A., and Mishler, William. 2005. “The Nexus of Representation: An Integrated Model of Women's Representation.” Journal of Politics 67 (2): 407–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squires, Judith. 2005. “Rethinking Substantive Representation.” European Consortium of Political Research, Budapest.Google Scholar
Strolovitch, Dara. 2007. Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamerius, Karin. 1995. “Sex, Gender, and Leadership in the Representation of Women.” In Gender Power, Leadership, and Governance, ed. Duerst-Lahti, Georgia and Kelly, Rita Mae. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 93–112.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Burns, Nancy, and Schlozman, Kay Lehman. 1997. “Knowing and Caring About Politics: Gender and Political Engagement.” Journal of Politics 59 (4): 1051–72.Google Scholar
Warren, Mark, and Castiglione, Dario. 2004. “The Transformation of Democratic Representation.” Democracy and Society 2 (1): 5, 20–22.Google Scholar
Weldon, S. Laurel. 2002. “Beyond Bodies: Institutional Sources of Representation for Women in Democratic Policymaking.” Journal of Politics 64 (4): 1153–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Melissa. 1998. Voice, Trust, and Memory: Marginalized Groups and the Failings of Liberal Representation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woolf, Virginia. 1966. Three Guineas. Orlando, FL: Harcourt.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1986. “Deferring Group Representation.” In Nomos: Group Rights, ed. Kymlicka, Will and Shapiro, Ian. New York: New York University Press, 349–76.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1990. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 1994. “Gender as Seriality: Thinking about Women as a Social Collective.” Signs 19 (3): 713–39.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2000. Inclusion and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zerilli, Linda. 1998. “Doing without Knowing: Feminism's Politics of the Ordinary.” Political Theory 26 (August): 435–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zerilli, Linda M. G. 2005. Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar