Patterns of Representation

This book examines the political representation of women on both the national and the state level in the U.S, broadly construed. Wagner argues that conventional conceptualizations of women’s interests are often too narrow and do not grasp the full breadth of representational activity on behalf of women. Using original data sets consisting of floor speeches, bills, and campaign ads for the 111th–114th Congress, as well as state-level bills, surveys and interviews with state legislators, Wagner establishes a clear typology of women’s interests and shows that demographic and contextual factors (specifically gender, partisanship, institutional context, receptiveness to women, and policy substance) predict the extent and content of legislators conceptualizations of women’s representation and consequently the way they represent women’s interests in the political process in patterned, predictable ways. This framework sets the stage for future study of the representation of group interests in the U.S.