Candidates, parties and the political system: The effects of stagnation on the election of women to the U.S. Congress.

摘要

Stagnation as a theory suggests that women may somehow play a role in holding their overall numbers in the U.S. Congress constant as oppose to encouraging the greater influx of women into the political system. This dissertation examines candidates, parties and the political system as the three primary institutions potentially responsible for the lesser influx of women to the U.S. Congress and what role women play within those institutions that hold their numbers constant. Specifically, the analysis examines the necessary resources for electoral success, which are defined as the ideological leaning of the congressional district, candidate expenditures and previous political experience and explores whether those resources are consistently distributed among candidates regardless of gender.