WITHDRAWN – Examining the Relationship Between Party Affiliation and the Percentage of Women in State Legislatures

WITHDRAWN

Abstract:

Project was WITHDRAWN
In the past 30 years, women’s progress in state legislatures has slowed. Furthermore, the percentage of women in state legislatures does not accurately represent the gender demographics of the population. Existing literature proposes many factors that influence this, but most studies highlight party affiliation as a probable culprit. Hence the question follows, does the majority party affiliation of the electorate and the state legislature determine the likelihood of a women’s election into a state legislature? Statistical analysis, when controlling for education and high religiosity, reveals that the answer to this query is an unanticipated no and led to the rejection of the hypotheses in this paper. The party affiliation of the population and state legislature have statistically insignificant correlations compared to the percentage of the population that is highly religious or has at least a bachelor’s degree. More specifically, high religiosity has a strong, statistically significant, negative correlation with the percentage of women in state legislatures. Future research must address high religiosity in more depth and investigate different religious groups and ideologies.