Gender, Party Status, and Lawmaking in the American States: A Reassessment of Legislative Effectiveness

Abstract

Volden et al.'s study of the US House of Representatives found that congresswomen in the minority party exhibit greater legislative effectiveness than their male counterparts, while effectiveness levels are comparable in the majority party. This paper re-examines the relationship between gender, majority party status, and legislative effectiveness within the diverse institutional contexts of US state legislatures. Using the State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) developed by Bucchianeri et al. for the period 1987–2018, we replicate and extend the original congressional analysis. Contrary to the findings at the national level, our analysis of over 80,000 legislator scores across 97 state legislative chambers reveals no measurable advantage in legislative effectiveness between women and men in the minority or majority party. Instead, we find that in most cases female state legislators are less effective than their male counterparts. These results suggest that the institutional dynamics shaping the conditions for women's legislative success may operate differently in state-level versus congressional settings, highlighting the importance of context in studies of gender and lawmaking.