The South Carolina House on Wednesday passed the so-called “fetal heartbeat bill”, a legislative framework that prohibits most abortions after 6-8 weeks of pregnancy. Since the House passed the Senate-initiated bill without amendment, it requires only a procedural vote on Thursday and then proceeds to Governor Henry McMaster’s desk for signature.
Among their objections, including claims about the harmful effects of the bill and constitutionally questionable, opponents often note that the Legislature is a male-dominated institution.
According to the Center for American Women and Politics, only 17.6% of state legislators are women. Of course, this is not exclusive to South Carolina. Only one state, Nevada, has more women than men in its legislature, and only 26.7% of Congress is female.
Why are there so few women in state legislatures?
One theory is explicit prejudice against candidates. In any election year, it is easy to find objectionable content that focuses on a candidate’s age, clothing or physical appearance. Likewise, there is a tendency to relegate women’s expertise to the so-called “female” political domains, such as education and health.
But despite its spread, the researchers concluded that gender bias is not a major cause of under-representation of women.
In her book, “When Does Gender Matter?”, Kathleen Dolan concludes that gender stereotypes have a limited effect on people’s votes for male or female candidates. Instead, voter behavior is explained, almost exclusively, by basic factors such as party affiliation. As she said, gender stereotypes “do not seem to play a central role in defining the assessments (voters) make candidates”.
Dolan’s discovery was confirmed by other studies with different data sets. As just one example, election statistics show that when women run for higher positions, they win just as often as men.
Why, then, are women underrepresented in state legislatures? The answer is what researchers call a “gender gap in political ambition”. In simple terms, women are less likely to run for higher positions than men.
In their aptly titled book, “It Takes a Candidate,” Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox study thousands of lawyers, business leaders and educators – all highly qualified potential candidates. Lawless and Fox ask a series of questions about the interviewees’ political aspirations, whether they investigated a political career and whether someone encouraged them to run for office.
According to Lawless and Fox’s results, a woman has about half the chance of considering running for state or federal office compared to an equally qualified man. Why? Women face several obstacles when it comes to running for office.
First, women are less likely to be recruited by party leaders. Second, women face greater family obligations that limit their ability to run for public office. And third, women often underestimate their qualifications and chances of winning. On this last point, despite the lack of explicit electoral prejudice against candidates, the perception of gender prejudice contributes – indirectly – to female under-representation.
Finally, it is important to note that female representation is improving, albeit slowly. Consider two Nancys in Congress: Mayor Nancy Pelosi and US Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
When Pelosi was first elected in the 1980s, only about 5% of Congress was female. Today, women commit almost 25% of Congress, a record driven by significant increases in both Republican women, including Mace, and women of color. In the same period, South Carolina more than doubled the number of women in its General Assembly, from about 7% in the 1980s to 17.6% today.
However, despite this progress, South Carolina (like Congress and most states) still under-represents women. Efforts to correct this problem must focus on the root causes. For example, local and state party leaders should work harder to recruit candidates, and state campaign finance laws could include childcare as an allowed expense.
After all, when it comes to increasing the percentage of women in politics, you need a candidate first.
Jordan Ragusa is an associate professor and associate president of the Department of Political Science at the College of Charleston. He published two books on American politics: “Congress in Reverse” (2020, University of Chicago Press) and “First in the South” (2020, University of South Carolina Press).