Marginalization and Mobilization: The Roots of Female Legislators’ Collaborative Advantage in the States

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Clint S. Swift ◽  
Kathryn VanderMolen
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Collaborative Activity ◽  
Collaborative Advantage ◽  
Collaborative Behavior ◽  
Female Legislators ◽  
State Legislative

Abstract Scholars have argued that female legislators are more prone to collaborate than their male counterparts. Though collaboration may be more or less evident in particular situations, we seek to more clearly establish the mechanism behind women’s collaborative activity using the framework of marginalization. In this paper, we use cosponsorship data from 74 state legislative chambers from 2011–2014 to analyze collaborative patterns and mobilizing institutions. We find female legislators are more collaborative than men, and that their collaborative advantage strengthens in chambers where women are systematically excluded from leadership positions. The advantage also extends to bipartisan collaboration, but only in less polarized settings with women’s caucuses. Furthermore, our findings imply that as women are integrated into leadership collaboration will actually decline, especially within their own party. We believe these results are important for understanding both the roots of collaborative behavior among female legislators and consequences of chambers that marginalize women from leadership positions.

scholarly journals Diversity in Party Leadership in State Legislatures

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Hansen ◽  
Christopher J. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Political Representation ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Women In Leadership ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
Selection Methods ◽  
Substantial Variation ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Leader Selection ◽  
State Legislative

Members of historically underrepresented groups—women, African Americans, Latinos, and workers—are serving in American legislatures in increasing numbers. However, legislators wield substantially greater power in the lawmaking process when they hold leadership positions. Incorporation of these groups into leadership positions could indicate fuller political representation, but scholars to date have not assessed how well these groups are represented in leadership. We analyze original data describing the backgrounds of approximately 2,200 leaders in 30 states between 2003 and 2014. The data show that, on average across states, members of these groups are as well represented in state legislative leadership positions as they are in rank-and-file membership, but there is substantial variation across states and across parties. We then ask what factors might explain this variation and explore institutional characteristics, like the number of leadership positions or leader selection methods. The results show that legislative chambers with a higher number of leadership posts tend to have more women in leadership, and that selection through elections is associated with decreased African American presence in leadership. The findings have implications for minority incorporation and influence in American politics.

Status Incongruity and Backlash against Female Legislators: How Legislative Speechmaking Benefits Men, but Harms Women

2019 ◽  
pp. 106591291986144 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Murat Yildirim ◽  
Gülnur Kocapınar ◽  
Yuksel Alper Ecevit
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Women In Leadership ◽  
Female Leadership ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Members Of Parliament ◽  
Social Sanctions ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Female Legislators

The literature on nomination procedures and intra-party politics shows that engagement in personalized parliamentary activities helps legislators get re-elected and promoted in the party list. However, as a considerable body of scholarly work suggests, women in leadership positions who are perceived to disconfirm the well-known gender stereotypes by being “too assertive” and “agentic” in the workplace may suffer from what social psychologists call the “backlash effect” (i.e., facing economic and social sanctions). Integrating insights from the literatures on perceptions of female leadership and intra-party politics, we reveal the differential effect of legislative speechmaking on the career prospects of male and female members of parliament (MPs). Specifically, using an original dataset of over thirty-five thousand parliamentary speeches and the biographies of 2,140 MPs who served in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey between 1995 and 2011, we show that the well-documented positive effect of engagement in parliamentary activities on career prospects holds for male MPs, but not for their female counterparts. In fact, we found that female MPs who were active on the legislative floor were significantly less likely to get renominated and promoted in the party rank. These results imply that the challenges facing women in leadership positions go beyond electoral competition.

Problem Severity, Collaborative Stage, and Partner Selection in US Cities

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaiva Kalesnikaite ◽  
Milena I Neshkova
Keyword(s):  
Local Governments ◽  
Partner Selection ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Collaborative Activity ◽  
Collaborative Behavior ◽  
Local Decision ◽  
Problem Severity ◽  
Us Cities ◽  
Local Decision Makers

Abstract Prior research identifies problem severity as an important antecedent of collaboration. Yet, little is known about how problem severity shapes collaborative behavior of public organizations beyond the initial decision to engage in such action. This study adds to the theory of collaboration by linking problem severity to the stage of collaborative activity and partner selection. We empirically test the validity of these linkages in the context of US local governments and examine how they respond to a wicked public problem—sea-level rise. The analysis draws on 2017 survey data from 140 vulnerable municipalities across 20 states. We find that cities respond to higher risk by increasing their collaborative effort and seeking partners across sectors, with preference for those less similar to them. Our results remain robust to three objective measures of problem severity, as well as to a perception-based measure. A closer examination of the interplay between the effect of real and perceived threat underscores the need to account for the views of local decision makers.

Assessing Collaborative Behavior in Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarina Krkovic ◽  
Sascha Wüstenberg ◽  
Samuel Greiff
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Collaborative Problem Solving ◽  
Seventh Graders ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Personality Tests ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Knowledge Application ◽  
Computer Agent ◽  
Collaborative Behavior ◽  
Confirmatory Factor

Abstract. Skilful collaborative problem-solving is becoming increasingly important in various life areas. However, researchers are still seeking ways to assess and foster this skill in individuals. In this study, we developed a computer-assisted assessment for collaborative behavior (COLBAS) following the experiment-based assessment of behavior approach (objective personality tests; Cattell, 1958 ). The instrument captures participants’ collaborative behavior in problem-solving tasks using the MicroDYN approach while participants work collaboratively with a computer-agent. COLBAS can thereby assess problem-solving and collaborative behavior expressed through communication acts. To investigate its validity, we administered COLBAS to 483 German seventh graders along with MicroDYN as a measure of individual problem-solving skills and questions regarding the motivation to collaborate. A latent confirmatory factor analysis suggested a five-dimensional construct with two problem-solving dimensions (knowledge acquisition and knowledge application) and three collaboration dimensions (questioning, asserting, and requesting). The results showed that extending MicroDYN to include collaborative aspects did not considerably change the measurement of problem-solving. Finally, students who were more motivated to collaborate interacted more with the computer-agent but also obtained worse problem-solving results.

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