海角论坛

October 14, 2014鈥擜ssociate Professor of Michele Swers spends a lot of time researching the behavior of Congress from their policy preferences to their appearances on Sunday morning talk shows. Her recent book, examines the influence of gender on the policies and priorities of female senators, who constitute only 20 percent of the Senate. She sat down with us to talk about whether gender matters in Congress and what she expects for the 2014 midterm elections.

Georgetown 海角论坛: How did you become interested in this line of research?
Michele Swers: When I was a graduate student, there was a very famous book on Congress called Congress: The Electoral Connection. It said that all members of Congress are going to respond to their constituency to get re-elected, so it really doesn鈥檛 matter who you elect. At the same time, maybe 10鈥�12 percent of Congress was [female]. Does it matter that there are so few women? According to that theory, it doesn鈥檛 matter at all. I wanted to look at what happens when women are in Congress. Is there any difference in their policy priorities?

GC: Does gender matter?
MS: I think everybody brings in their [own] experiences, so your experience as a woman is going to be different than someone else鈥檚 experience as a woman. But there are certain gender aspects of it that you are bringing to the table鈥攊n the way that you see issues and in the way you experience things.

I think [gender] colors how they look at issues, and it does affect what they decide to make a priority. But they don鈥檛 walk in every day and say, 鈥淚鈥檓 a female senator doing women鈥檚 issues.鈥� You are trying to represent all the constituents in the state, but you might see things differently or be more receptive to what certain people bring to you because of your experience.

GC: Does the general public have gendered assumptions about what female politicians care about?
MS: We鈥檝e called things women鈥檚 issues in the public mind, and [women] have more credibility on them. They can become leaders on [those topics], and people will defer to them. But on the other hand, they don鈥檛 want to be pigeonholed into those issues as their only issue.

You鈥檙e always going to do what your state needs and what your state allows. So within the basket of issues that a state might support, you might see a woman do a little bit more on issues that would help children and families. But she鈥檚 going to do what鈥檚 in the basket of what that state needs.

GC: There are only 20 women in the Senate – 16 Democrats and 4 Republicans. After your research, why do you think women are still underrepresented?
MS: Part of it is incumbency. So even though we don鈥檛 like members of Congress, we elect them at rates of over 90 percent. We don鈥檛 like Congress because we judge Congress on national standards, but we like our congressman okay because we judge him on local standards.

Women started coming into Congress, really in larger numbers, after the feminist movement, where the incumbency advantage was already well established. So women will have their best chance at winning a seat when an incumbent retries or when there鈥檚 an open seat. There are other factors. Even when you have an open seat, you don鈥檛 see women competing for office, and that part is more mysterious.

GC: What do you expect for the 2014 midterms?
MS: This has been a long recession, and people are responding to the economy and the feeling that the country is on the wrong track. And if you feel like the country is on the wrong track, then the person to blame is the president. The president鈥檚 party, year after year in midterm elections, always loses seats. For President Obama, there鈥檚 a certain floor because certain districts are always going to be more democratic or more republican. President Obama and the Democrats lost 63 seats in 2010. In that way, Republicans have made the gains they are going to make.

I think the nature of the electorate that goes into midterm elections is important. The Democrats do seem to have a problem mobilizing their electorate and that鈥檚 hurting them. In a midterm year, your electorate is going to be older, whiter, and more conservative, and that鈥檚 going to favor Republicans these days.

Related Information  

Learn more in Michele Swers鈥檚 latest book, .