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Title: Gendering Policy Responsibility across the American States, 1910-2010

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: Womens office holding in the state executive branches varies across the American states, across time and across policy fields. Contrary to some scholarship on gender and politics, women are not concentrated in feminine policy fields, such as public education; and, they are not absent in masculine policy fields, such as finance. In fact, where and when women have been likely to hold policy-specific offices has changed considerably since women first secured suffrage in 1920. Today, in many states, women are more likely to be Secretary of State, a gender-neutral position, and as likely to be State Treasurer, a masculine position, as they are to be Superintendent of Education, a feminine position. In this paper, I argue that variation in womens state office holding is explained in part by stability and change in womens careers; by their increasing presence as policy actors at lower levels of government, and by changes in selectoral mechanisms for statewide offices. This study confirms that a gendered dimension to policy responsibility exists across the states. More importantly, it shows how this dimension has shifted over time in ways that have altered womens pathways to power.

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Authors: Pisapia, Michael C.

Conference Name: State Politics & Policy Conference

Publisher Location: Iowa City, IA

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure

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