Electability of Female Candidates: Improving Female Representation in State Legislatures

摘要

The underrepresentation of female legislators is an important issue to investigate in our political system to improve women's role in government. I investigate factors that hinder and improve women's likelihood of being elected in state legislatures by using date from a variety of sources. The Center for American Women in Politics from Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics, Bloomberg News, Gallup Inc., and Elazar's work on political cultures contributed to this data to find factors across the nation that are strong determinants for the percentage of female legislators in each state. Overall, factors like the gender-equality ranking, political culture, conservativeness and religiosity of each state will have a direct impact on the number of women who are elected into the legislature.