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- Title
District Magnitude's Effect On Female Representation In U.S. State Legislatures.
- Authors
Matland, Richard E.; Brown, Deborah Dwight
- Abstract
Researchers concerned with women's access to public office are now studying the effects that electoral institutions have on female representation. Within the United States, a number of scholars have considered the effect of district magnitude on female representation in state legislatures. A controversy exists as to whether women are better represented in systems with multimember districts than in those with single-member districts only. This article presents the theoretical reasons why multimember districts should give women an advantage, reviews the empirical literature, proposes several hypotheses that would reconcile the inconsistent results in the empirical literature, and then tests those hypotheses in two states over a 22-year period. The results provide strong confirmation of the effect of district magnitude and cast serious doubt on those studies which show little effect. In closing, the authors suggest that their findings have important public policy implications for women's representation in state legislatures.
- Subjects
UNITED States; WOMEN legislators; LEGISLATIVE bodies; REPRESENTATIVE government; POLITICAL planning; LITERATURE &; state; ELECTION law; HYPOTHESIS; POLITICS &; literature
- Publication
Legislative Studies Quarterly, 1992, Vol 17, Issue 4, p469
- ISSN
0362-9805
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/439862