Legislating from the minority: An analysis of women's substantive representation in the Oklahoma legislature
Abstract
Women currently constitute approximately 21% of Oklahoma's legislature, a very low proportion compared to other U.S. states. This statistic raises an important question in terms of substantive (policy) representation for women: how does women's substantive representation occur when they constitute such a small proportion of policymakers? Scholars have hypothesized that substantive representation requires either a critical mass of women or critical actors to push legislation through to success. I propose instead that the answer to this question may lie in gendered patterns of collaboration among legislators. While I expect women to introduce most of the bills addressing issues affecting women's issues, I also expect gendered authorship patterns to emerge vis-a-vis bills addressing these topics, particularly those that are passed into law. As such, I plan to answer this question by examining various factors that may impact the success of legislation, particularly legislation addressing women's issues. These factors include the party, gender, and seniority of author(s)/coauthor(s), whether those individuals hold influential chamber leadership positions, whether the topic of the bill addresses a women's issue directly, and the stage in the legislative process at which each bill ended. This data will be collected for the 2020 legislative session.
Citation
Pritzlaff, R., & Herrick, R. (2022, April 19). Legislating from the minority: An analysis of women's substantive representation in the Oklahoma legislature. Poster session presented at the Oklahoma State University Undergraduate Research Symposium, Stillwater, OK.