Bonding Activities among Black Congresswomen and Surrogate Representation

• In Event: Gender, Intersectionality, and American Party Politics

Abstract

One major research question in American politics that political scientists need to investigate is centered around members of Congress (MCs) with multiple identities, specifically Black women in Congress. As more individuals from multiple identities are elected to Congress it is important to understand how they not only bring these backgrounds to their work, but also how their identities can come into conflict with some of the general constraints and cross pressures members of Congress face. As members of an intersectional group working within a race-gendered institution, Black congresswomen share a sense of group consciousness and obligation to promote representation to other Black women inside and outside their districts. This project will not only utilize an original dataset, but also take a mixed-methods and interdisciplinary approach, specifically from sociology and genealogies of Black feminist theory, in understanding how Black women in Congress will support each other through “bonding activities” (Denton 1990). Through these congressional bonding activities, Black congresswomen will be able to actualize surrogate representation, whether in a substantive or symbolic manner. This is a process and theory I call the sister support theory.

Author

• Curtis Kelton Edmonds, Syracuse University