Gender and vote revelation strategy in the United States Congress.

Legislators approach each election as if they might lose. Electoral insecurity coupled with gender stereotypes held by voters and lawmakers alike may lead female legislators to communicate more voting decisions to voters as a signal of their policy-driven efforts. Using an original data-set of over...

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Published in:Journal of Gender Studies Vol. 25; no. 6; pp. 626 - 641
Main Author: Cormack, Lindsey
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis Ltd Dec2016
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        au: Cormack, Lindsey
        affil: College of Arts and Letters, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA
      su:
        United States. Congress
        Political communication
        Representative government
        Gender stereotypes
        American women in politics
        Communication styles
      sug:
        subj:
          Political communication
          Representative government
          Gender stereotypes
          United States. Congress
          Legislative Bodies
          American women in politics
          Communication styles
      keyword:
        communication styles
        political communication
        representation
        Women in politics
        communication styles
        political communication
        representation
        Women in politics
      ab: Legislators approach each election as if they might lose. Electoral insecurity coupled with gender stereotypes held by voters and lawmakers alike may lead female legislators to communicate more voting decisions to voters as a signal of their policy-driven efforts. Using an original data-set of over 40,000 official e-newsletters and Real Simple Syndication feeds sent by members of Congress, I show that women reveal more roll call votes to constituents than their male counterparts. Significant differences exist between male and female incumbents in the frequency of vote revelation despite the fact that male and female legislators use these communication techniques to reach constituents at the same rates and call attention to similar bills. These differences persist after accounting for the effects of party, seniority, district fit, and other potential confounds. Women highlight their ability to fulfill the roles expected of lawmakers by explicitly signaling involvement in lawmaking activities more frequently than men. In a second test, I analyze the types of bills legislators reveal votes on and find no differences between men and women.
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    language: English
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