The Political Determinants of Women’s Descriptive Representation in Cities

• Author: Adrienne R. Smith,Beth Reingold,Michael Leo Owens
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912910395327
• Date: 01 June 2012
• Published date: 01 June 2012
• Subject Matter: Articles

Political Research Quarterly

65(2) 315 –329

© 2012 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912910395327

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When and where are women present in political offices?

This is a long-standing question posed by political scien-

tists, and for good reason. Women still hold far fewer

elected and appointed positions than do men. The dispar-

ity calls into question the openness of American politics

and political institutions to women and may have signifi-

cant and widespread repercussions for policymaking and

responsiveness (Mansbridge 1999; Phillips 1995). In this

study, we seek to understand the geography of women’s

political fortunes, focusing on the presence of women as

mayors and council members in medium and large Amer-

ican cities.

We argue for a more in-depth, theoretically informed

analysis of the determinants of women’s descriptive (or

numerical) representation (Pitkin 1967) at the municipal

level. To solve the puzzle of why women hold more policy-

making positions in some cities than in others requires

fuller consideration of the political context of cities. As

the broader research on women and politics and the par-

ticular research focused on cities suggest, a mix of elec-

toral, institutional, socioeconomic, and political factors

may explain the presence (or absence) of women in local

office. This mix of explanatory factors rightly involves a

variety of actors throughout the electoral process—

women contemplating a political career or running for a

particular office, party leaders and other political activists

and organizations responsible for recruiting candidates,

campaign professionals and financiers, voters, or all of

the above. Cities and their governments differ along all

these lines. Yet it is unclear whether or how such differ-

ences help explain the variation in women holding office

at the local level.1

Cities are a useful venue for examining women’s

descriptive representation in political offices, or the lack

thereof. First, there is a large number of local offices, and

“most women who hold public office in the United States

do so at the local level” (Darcy, Welch, and Clark 1994,

30). Moreover, many women who hold national or state

office began their careers in municipal politics

(Sanbonmatsu, Carroll, and Walsh 2009). In terms of pro-

portions, however, women remain just as underrepre-

sented in the councils and mayoralties of cities (population

30,000 or more) as they are at higher levels of legislative

and executive office (Carroll and Sanbonmatsu 2010;

Center for American Women and Politics 2010). Second,

the presence of women in policy-making positions varies

greatly from one city to the next. Third, variation in local

political institutions extends beyond what is found at the

1Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Adrienne R. Smith, Emory University, Department of Political Science,

327 Tarbutton Hall, 1555 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322

Email: adrienne.smith@emory.edu

The Political Determinants of Women’s

Descriptive Representation in Cities

Adrienne R. Smith1, Beth Reingold1, and Michael Leo Owens1

Abstract

Why is the descriptive (or numerical) representation of women in policy-making positions higher in some cities than

in others? Despite a strong body of work on the descriptive representation of women in state government, research

on the presence of women in municipal government is limited in empirical scope and theoretical development. This

study is different. First, the authors employ an original data set of 239 cities with populations of 100,000 or more

to update and extend the empirical reach of scholars’ knowledge. Second, the authors develop and test hypotheses

to explain how the urban political context affects women’s descriptive representation. The analysis reveals that the

election of women as council members and mayors are interdependent phenomena. The authors also find that political

characteristics of local communities are consequential for predicting the presence of women as municipal policy

makers—just as consequential as electoral structures and other institutional features.

Keywords

representation, women and politics, urban politics, state politics