Women of Color in State Legislatures: Gender,Race, Ethnicity and Legislative Office Holding

SUMMARY

This article investigates the puzzle of women of color's proportionately higher percentage of office holding in state legislatures compared to white women legislators by testing the predictive capacity of variables commonly used to explain percentages of women at the state level. Using an original dataset that includes characteristics for all 50 U.S. states, the results suggest that standard indicators of women's office holding do not work equally well for all groups of women. The study demonstrates that race and ethnicity do make a difference in regards to women's office holding at the state level when the racial and ethnic characteristics of female legislators are considered.