Electoral Motivations for Supporting Women
Political leaders – most notably party leaders and gatekeepers – have been motivated to recruit and support women candidates as a strategy for electoral success. These efforts have increased the number of women in office, but present challenges to the full empowerment of all women.
Women’s political underrepresentation can be defined as a problem of principles or politics, or some combination therein. For those who believe that the lack of gender parity in political leadership is undemocratic and yields inferior or unfair outcomes, making the case for increasing women’s political representation and power is a value proposition. For those who believe that the lack of gender diversity among candidates is bad for party optics and/or misses opportunities for electoral advantages, making the case for increasing women’s political representation is an electoral proposition.
When we asked political actors what they viewed as reasons for recent gains in women’s political representation as candidates or officeholders, interview subjects from both parties and across states expressed both rationales as motivating their work or others’ efforts. It may be unsurprising that political practitioners – our primary subjects – were most likely to emphasize the electoral opportunities of increasing diversity, but this approach has limitations to increasing women’s political power. First, as noted in chapter one, increasing women’s representation through elections does not always yield a concomitant increase in women’s political power, especially if gatekeepers continue to be white men. Next, promoting women’s candidacies based on their capacity for electoral success relies often on perceptions of electability that have long disadvantaged women of color, especially outside of racially diverse districts. Finally, factors in a political equation – such as political context and voter demand – can quickly change while a values-based commitment to increasing gender equity is not time- or context-bound.
I definitely think that the elected Democratic leaders who are running the caucuses and their members who are involved in decision-making, they all want obviously to win the chamber – whether it’s the House or the Senate – and they all want the best candidates. And luckily I think that we’re seeing that women were resonating with voters.”
Rebecca McNichol (d-pa)
Executive Director of Emerge Pennsylvania
Yeah, I mean look, 2014 cleaned a lot of things out. …The Democrats lost the majority in both houses in 2014 by a little over 2,000 votes. …What that did was effectively start us over. And so there was some intentionality about okay, how do we take it back? Analyzing the districts, analyzing the voters, analyzing the potential candidates, [and] recognizing that, again, Republicans were going to put up a bunch of white dudes who are crazy for reelection come 2016. And we had a chance to really go and talk to the Emerge graduates, to the party activists who had said for years they wanted to get involved in politics, and for the most part happened to be diverse and women. …We were not saying, ‘Let’s build a majority-woman legislature,’ but we were saying, ‘Let’s find a woman if there’s a woman in this seat that wants to run.’ The default is, ‘Let’s endorse the woman.’”
Megan Jones (d-nv)
Democratic Political Consultant
We elect and win when Republicans nominate female justices or female judge candidates. You can look up and down the ballot…we’ve had men win too, but women will always give us a bit of an advantage up and down in the courts. And…a Republican woman in a general election is a powerhouse. Now what we have to do is find the right ones and then marry them up with the resources. And I think that is really a formula for us moving forward.”
Ray Zaborney (r-pa)
Republican Political Consultant
Party leaders have woken up completely to the idea that we have to run women if we are to be successful.”
Elizabeth Preate Havey (r-pa)
Secretary of the Pennsylvania State GOP
Status quo now for the Republicans [is]…the only way to beat a woman is with a woman. So it hasn’t taken very many cycles frankly for the Republicans to be like, ‘Let’s get this Annie Black, who doesn’t think she should wear a mask or whatever, to run in Mesquite. Let’s have this female cop run in this targeted senate district this time around.’ …They’re getting it. I mean they are coming for us.”
Megan Jones (d-nv)
Democratic Political Consultant
I think that the Republican Party right now has a lot of messaging issues and…just an increase in participation of people that don’t share that value for diversity and I don’t agree with that. I’m very much an advocate for equal rights and diversity and…I hope that trend reverses at some point in the future. …I do have people in my ear that would say that we absolutely are reaching out to groups that are more diverse and there has been efforts there, and that there is a welcome, open tent to diverse ethnicities and representation. But that message has, I think, been interrupted by some mixed messages there and has not translated consistently and effectively for us to see the level of support of diverse communities and participation.”
Jill Tolles (r-nv)
Former State Assemblywoman
My cause for concern is that I’ve not seen much change over the years. And I think that’s a precursor of why this state is turning purple. And that concerns me because I am a conservative Republican and we have to have more than angry white men in the party. And if you’re going to have more than that, you have to have more women. And I just haven’t seen that curve being struck. I mean they haven’t tried to pave the road for that and that’s part of the reason why you see the demise [of the Republican Party].”
Renee Unterman (r-ga)
Former State Senator
I find that in the Republican Party they are trying harder to get a mix because…we lost a lot of Republican women. They were turned off by our party so the idea is now to make a push for getting more women to run for office because of that and because we need to get to those people that are undecided or turned off by the party. So I feel that there’s a big push here now. But we are certainly more open and willing to bring in more women now because we need to bring back these women that were so turned off [by] our party.”
Evelyn Sanguinetti (r-il)
Former Lieutenant Governor
In some ways, as the state becomes more racially diverse, they’re recruiting women from diverse racial backgrounds because they think that…they can mobilize voters.”
Jan Jones Blackhurst (d-nv)
Former Mayor of Las Vegas
There’s a widespread understanding now that…women candidates are attractive to voters. …The narrative around Doug Jones’ election to the U.S. Senate from Alabama is Black women drove that vote. And that is certainly part of the narrative — women and people of color driving new election outcomes. So it’s quite true that party leaders have started acting on that understanding.”
Nan Orrock (d-ga)
State Senator
One of the things we’ve tried to do is [increase the racial/ethnic diversity in our party]. …I’ve got a mix of Hispanics and people of color on my executive committee and I want it to stay that way. …They are solid Republicans and we try and get them out and get them shaking the bushes because we just want to be more diverse. …We’re trying to be as diverse as we can be. We want as many voters as we can. And, you know, that’s just the name of the game. Get out the votes. I mean there [are] more Republicans than there are Democrats and if we [get] them all out…we win.”
Ken Warner (r-ok)
Chair of the Oklahoma County Republican Party
I think with the increase of the electorates being women coming out to vote, determining elections, I think that has forced the Democratic Party to give more women a seat at that table. But just because you have a seat at the table does not mean you are in the room or in the smoke-filled room or in the same backroom where the deals are cut.”
Morgan Cephas (d-pa)
State Representative
You know, we have a lot of firsts in Nevada and I think the reason, one of the reasons why is that there is an understanding and a recognition that the individuals who are running for elected office are going to and need to represent the districts that they are running in. And because Nevada is an incredibly diverse state. [It has the] fastest growing AAPI population in the country. I think 28% of the state is Latino. There is a robust African American population. Two percent of the state, I think, is Native American. I mean it’s a diverse state. And so I think you also just need to have elected officials who are representing their districts and know their district…[and can] communicate with our constituents. …So I think that there’s a recognition there that that’s important.”
Former Democratic Party Leader (d-nv)
I think that we do look at [creating opportunities for Republican women] from a perspective of the way the media is attacking us. If you are constantly being attacked for not having a female or not having a minority then it only makes sense strategy-wise to try to combat that attack.”
Janelle King (r-ga)
Former Deputy State and Data Director for the Georgia Republican Party
Democrats have a list of attacks that they make on Republicans, no matter what — we’re extreme on this or that, abortion, et cetera, et cetera. …They stick more to [an] old white man than they would to a female candidate, right? It’s very hard…for a white man Democrat to attack a woman saying…essentially what you should do when it comes to abortion, what you should do when it comes to you know, childcare, et cetera. …So there is no doubt that there is an electoral advantage, and whoever cracks the code and marries up a strong, qualified female with the resources is going to win…a statewide election [in Pennsylvania].”
Ray Zaborney (r-pa)
Republican Political Consultant
So I think that what the party is learning is that the idea of who can win is changing. It doesn’t have to be what it was at one time. And I think that when you talk about, for instance, Representative Summer Lee potentially making history not as a nominee but as the first Black woman to go to Congress [from Pennsylvania] in November, she is an epitome of party leadership learning…that anyone can win in any district if they [do] the hard work. …I think party leadership has always had this idea of who can win and many times that person was not a Black woman for certain communities. So we are learning, we are seeing, we are getting educated, and we’re seeing through the wins and losses how this is evolving. And it’s a great time to be involved and engaged in politics because it’s almost like a real evolution in terms of who traditionally could win versus who’s been successful electorally these last few elections. [Interview conducted in August 2022.]”
Joanna McClinton (d-pa)
Speaker of the State House
Partisan Differences in Identifying Barriers
Republicans are less likely than Democrats to identify systemic and distinct barriers to women’s political representation and power within their states’ ecosystems and more likely than Democrats to cite women’s doubts and/or preferences as the primary cause for their political underrepresentation.
By nature of their willingness to participate in our study, the political leaders we interviewed were arguably among the most likely to recognize women’s political underrepresentation – especially as officeholders – as a problem worthy of intervention. While few in number, some of the most conservative insiders we interviewed rejected this premise altogether. More common was variance in the degree to which interviewees identified gendered hurdles within their states’ political ecosystems as well as to what factors they attributed gender disparities in political representation and/or power. In line with Republicans in public opinion surveys, Republican interview subjects were more likely than Democrats to attribute women’s underrepresentation to individual-level versus systemic factors. Perceptions of the root causes for women’s political underrepresentation inform interventions to address it; if and where the culpability is put on women alone, less value is placed on structural interventions for change.
I think that women are very accepted in the political circle. …I think that women are very well respected.”
Pam Pollard (r-ok)
Director of Finance for National Federation of Republican Women and Republican National Committeewoman
I don’t think there’s any bias against women…I believe that that the tide [has] turned dramatically to accepting that women are a vital part of the political process and they need to be included.”
Christine Toretti (r-pa)
Republican National Committeewoman and Founder of the Anne B. Anstine Excellence in Public Service Series
I think it’s getting friendlier all the time [for women in Oklahoma politics]. I’m definitely in a minority but I don’t see any differences in the way I’m treated or the opportunities I have than my male counterparts. I have the benefit of being in [legislative] leadership and I think all those opportunities are open to women.”
Julie Daniels (r-ok)
State Senator
I don’t see barriers, I really don’t. We kind of create our own sometimes. There are some restrictions that we put on ourselves, or we don’t want to get involved in politics.”
Barbara Cegavske (r-nv)
Former Secretary of State
I know the House Republicans, [we] were always involved in looking for candidates and we love to have women. The problem is…a lot of times [women] don’t want to do it or they don’t pass the litmus tests that are now being imposed.”
Christine Radogno (r-il)
Former State Senate Minority Leader
Women suffer badly from imposter syndrome. And I know myself, when I first started considering running, I questioned myself a lot about ‘why me? Am I really qualified to do this?’ And it wasn’t until somebody said, ‘Well, if you’re not qualified, I don’t know who is,’ [that] I started thinking about it in a different way. And I do think it’s getting better. I think younger women, considerably younger than I am, don’t have it as badly as my generation did, maybe because they are growing up with better role models and examples of women doing these things. …They seem to be much more empowered than we were.”
Susan Wild (d-pa)
U.S. Representative
Partisan Differences in Supporting Targeted Interventions
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support and engage in targeted interventions to increase diversity among candidates and officeholders, with partisan variance at least partially rooted in different perceptions about fairness, the value of diversity, and merit.
After identifying gender disparities in political representation within their states, we asked political actors to share their perceptions on what would be necessary to resolve them. Many Democrats and Republicans across our case states emphasized their aversion to tokenizing women by making a case for women’s political representation without conditions such as ideological alignment or professional autonomy. Democrats and people of color were especially likely to also outline distinct needs that vary at the intersection of gender, race/ethnicity, and party. But even where they accepted that current numbers fall short, Republican interview subjects were the most likely to express opposition to targeted efforts to increase gender and/or racial/ethnic diversity in representation.
I think more women are getting involved from the Republican side than perhaps used to be the case. So I think naturally the numbers will continue to grow. I would never want anybody to cast a vote for me just because I was a woman or for anybody else.”
Julie Daniels (r-ok)
State Senator
So just checking the box of female, is it enough? It’s also females who are tethered to values that promote our power and our self determination. It’s got to start being more intentional. …The definitions are going to have to become more specific.”
Stacy Davis Gates (d-il)
President of the Chicago Teachers Union
So I don’t think, from my perspective, any party leader has been any impediment to women in politics. I do think…with all due respect to my Democratic friends, there is this notion of identity politics and stepping aside for someone that’s better for the ticket that I don’t believe exists in the Republican Party. …It’s everybody’s right to run for an office. Nobody is going to clear the decks for somebody else on the Republican side. …Everybody that wants to run is going to get to run. And there’s not going to be any picking favorites or trying to skew things or figure out a ticket that gives somebody who’s at the top of a ticket a better likelihood of winning. And so I think that’s just a matter of difference of philosophy between the two parties. …Maybe it works out that you have these people who check these boxes, who brand these facets of the electorate. …I don’t think party leaders are an impediment in the Republican Party in Georgia to women running for office. But neither do I think that anybody in those roles [is] going to clear the decks just to have a women run for an office to fill a square.”
Regina Quick (r-ga)
Former State Representative
I do think that that [it] is more often the school of thought [among Republicans] that we don’t need to focus so much on [gender]. We need to focus more on everyone’s individual unique talents and whoever the best qualified person is for the job. And there is some truth in that. We can go to an extreme of overly focusing on separate categories. However – and maybe it’s because academically I taught gender and communication, I teach multicultural communication, I teach about these concepts – I’m so much more aware of the fact that we do need to acknowledge that things like mentorship and…being invited into the conversation, [to] the table, is important [to women] because historically we haven’t done that. So I’m probably an outlier in that regard that I’ve spent many years studying from an academic perspective these types of issues and I have a different perspective than a lot of my colleagues do. I think many times, not always, but many times [they] are well-meaning in that perspective but they just haven’t necessarily seen it from a different light.”
Jill Tolles (r-nv)
Former State Assemblywoman
So again, I’m never going to support a woman because she has a vagina. I’m only going to support a woman because she has the same politics that I have and she’s willing to stand up for my family. That would be the only way I would do that.”
Jenni White (r-ok)
Education Director of Reclaim Oklahoma Parent Empowerment and Former Mayor of Luther
I consider myself an advocate [for women’s political leadership]. I think it has made us richer as a state. It made my experience as a leader and a legislator richer, but I have repeatedly gone out of my way to stress I’m under no illusion that women legislators are a monolithic community, that just because we get women that they all are going to be of one mind and agree on certain issues. And I think it would have been inappropriate for me to expect that. But I do think that when you include people with different backgrounds than traditional, you get that rich, broad, I think, perspective. We had women that were not as supportive of…issues that are historically important to women. And I think it was important for me to give them that freedom and room to be who they were. And that was important to me as well. …I think we’re open and inviting and not intimidated [as men] by being gender-wise in the minority. I think we got a much richer…set of perspectives that helped shape policy.”
Jason Frierson (d-nv)
U.S. Attorney and Former State Assembly Speaker
Partisan Differences in Pressure to Promote Representation
Republican party leaders face less pressure than their Democratic counterparts – from voters, practitioners, and women political leaders – to embrace strategies that more explicitly promote increasing women’s political representation and power.
Partisan differences in perceptions of diversity, equity, and merit are not limited to political leaders. They also shape expectations and demands of voters, and thus the level of pressure party leaders and practitioners feel to respond. Both at present and in recent decades, Democrats have surpassed Republicans in gender and racial/ethnic diversity among both voters and officeholders. Whether motivated by values or electoral incentive, these types of diversity in Democratic politics have today become a point of distinction from Republicans. And Democrats face pressure from their base voters to recruit and support leaders that better reflect the constituencies that elect them, and pressure from outside organizations and advocates who create alternative routes to diversifying who holds power when the party establishment fails to keep up. Still, when we asked political actors across our case states if pressure had been put on political leaders to increase gender and/or racial/ethnic diversity among candidates and officeholders, many – across parties – responded that they were unaware of any organized and/or sustained pressure campaign. Most did not characterize the work of women’s political organizations in this way, distinguishing between pressure campaigns and building support infrastructures for women.
In some places, an organized pressure campaign to increase women’s political representation and power might be less necessary. For example, where women have achieved representational parity with men already – like in Nevada’s state legislature or Democratic legislative caucuses in Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Nevada – gender parity in representation becomes an expectation. As former state Senator Sheila Leslie (D-NV) told us in reference to the gender parity achieved in Nevada’s legislature, “If [party leaders] were going to come out and run a bunch of white men, that would just be completely unacceptable to everyone.”
I think that [gender and racial diversity is] inherently something the [Democratic] Caucus was always going to support. You know, we pride ourselves on having a really diverse body…and a really diverse caucus, and I think that that’s something that was always reflected in the office electorally.”
Falak Sabbak (d-ga)
Former Executive Director of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus
I think the…newer women coming into the space, or just a new and younger wave of the electorate that are showing up to the polls and voting and getting involved, they’re forcing the Democratic Party to have these conversations [about who is electable]. And, again, it’s showing up in the races that we’re seeing now. [Interview conducted in May 2022.]”
Morgan Cephas (d-pa)
State Representative
I think there’ll be more pressure on the Republican side to not see [more representation of women]. I mean, some would want it but I think there are certain members of their base that don’t want to see that and they have a higher proportion of white men as part of their base and especially…ones [who] feel like white men are being disadvantaged these days.”
Elena Parent (d-ga)
State Senator
I’m seeing over time though…we’ve had representatives of our party attend our meetings [of Lake County Democratic Women] which is great but again it felt like they really didn’t want us to exist. They felt there was some kind of competition there instead of seeing that this is a benefit to them. …When I talk to party leadership [about our organization’s work] they will say, ‘But we already do this, right, within the party.’ Not with intentionality. ….The competition really lifts everybody because you have to do better if they are doing better. So we’ve actually seen…our local party working much harder than they did [to support women].”
Melinda Bush (d-il)
Former State Senator and Founder of Lake County Democratic Women
While I think the party gets it and truly understands that they need to be doing more in the space of candidate recruitment, I also think that it’s a culture shift for them. …It’s a culture issue because the party has been so engaged in coronations — king- and queen-making. …So the party is beginning to move into [more diverse and coordinated recruitment] because they are seeing how successful this relationship with Contest Every Race has been with doing this cold candidate recruitment. I mean we drug them along now, but they have been very, very excited because look, before we can even finish the work, they’re doing a press release about it.”
Kimberlyn Carter (d-ga)
Executive Director of Represent Georgia
Prescriptions
Articulate gender disparities in political representation and power as a problem and apply pressure to political leaders to address it. Be aware that how this problem is framed, including the source of disparities and the motivation to resolve them, will influence both avenues toward intervention and outcomes.
It is difficult to motivate action to address women’s political underrepresentation without first articulating the need for intervention and acquiring buy-in from political influencers – party and organizational leaders, political professionals, and even donors and voters – in a state’s political ecosystem. Framing gender disparities in political representation and power as democratic problem, one rooted in the value proposition that gender and racial/ethnic diversity among those in political power is not only fair but also brings a rich set of perspectives to politics and overall better outcomes for the broadest range of constituencies, offers a more durable and sustainable motivation to increase women’s political representation and power in both elected and unelected roles. Emphasizing the electoral value of increasing gender and racial diversity is also a viable strategy toward motivating political leaders to act, but this approach is more at risk of being time-specific, benefiting a smaller subset of women, and being less concerned about increasing women’s political power and more concerned with consolidating the power of a political party.
Be attentive to partisan differences in problem definition when crafting strategies for interventions to increase women’s political power.
Due to differences in problem definition between Republicans and Democrats, nonpartisan or bipartisan efforts to increase women’s political power are, at least, under-utilized by or, at most, distrusted by Republicans. Specifically, Republicans are less likely than Democrats to support identity-based interventions, necessitating consideration of alternative strategies for creating political conditions in which women can thrive. Republican-targeted strategies for increasing women’s political power must approach this work differently and with attentiveness to cultural and motivational differences. Accommodating these differences could also help in appeals to Democrats who are averse to prioritizing identity in strategies for political success.
Build a bench of potential women and racially/ethnically diverse candidates so that underrepresentation cannot be attributed to women’s choice.
When disparities in political representation are attributed to the choices of the underrepresented group (i.e. women do not want to run for or serve in positions of political leadership), political influencers – including those we interviewed for this project – are less likely to take any responsibility for increasing the gender and racial/ethnic diversity of candidates or officeholders. To counter these claims and shift responsibility for increasing diversity to those with influence on candidate emergence and success, our interview subjects described their own efforts to build benches of women and racially/ethnically diverse candidates through outreach and education. Then, when political leaders express support for increasing diverse candidates if they could find them, those same insiders have a ready response to hold the leaders accountable to their promise of support.
Increase the gender and racial/ethnic diversity of political leaders and gatekeepers, particularly those engaged in recruitment, hiring, and the allocation of resources and power.
Interview subjects described their own commitments to increasing gender and racial/ethnic diversity of political leaders, noting how their personal experiences and value commitments shape their priorities as political professionals. Specifically, women and people of color in positions of political authority – including party leaders, chamber leaders, and leading practitioners – outlined actions they have taken to disrupt established political processes in ways that would increase the political representation and power of women and racially/ethnically diverse communities. As individuals most aware of, and subject to, prevailing axes of marginalization, these leaders are apt to understand and problematize disparities in political representation and invest in targeted solutions to address them.
Create competition for established gatekeepers to motivate action to address gender and racial/ethnic disparities in representation.
The history of increasing women’s political representation in the U.S. has included strategic efforts to create support systems and strategic interventions alternative to political parties and the political establishment. By creating competition for these entities and threatening their control of candidate pipelines and electoral outcomes, these alternative entities pressure political insiders to better address gender gaps in who they recruit and support. In our states of study, multiple organizational leaders described how their own targeted efforts to recruit and train successful women candidates forced party leaders to pay greater attention to remedying gender disparities in political representation. They demonstrate the value of pressuring political leaders and party organizations from both the inside and the outside to increase women’s political representation and power.