Marginalized across Gender & Ethnicity: Multi-issue Policies & Mobilizing Latinas

• In Event: Gender, Advocacy, and Policy

Abstract

This paper uses a conjoint design with Latina American respondents to examine the decision-making factors that mobilize Latinas to support policy agendas by advocacy groups. Advocacy groups are important actors for communicating and engaging people in the policymaking process (Andrews & Edwards, 2004) especially people of color (Marchetti, 2014) and women (Dwidar, 2021; Strolovitch, 2007). Latinas, cis or trans women that identify as Hispanic or Latinx, are a unique group when it comes to supporting policies. They are marginalized across at least two axes of their identities: gender and ethnicity (Ayón et al., 2018; Browne, 2000). Latinas can additionally be marginalized by their native language, citizenship status, and income-level (Carol & Michele, 2021; Villalón, 2010). Marginalization across these multiple categories can position Latinas between several policy issues at one time such as immigration, poverty, and gendered violence (Ayón et al., 2018; Boris & Nadasen, 2008; Michener & Brower, 2020). In a recent experimental study by Brower (2021), select advocacy groups that presented policy agendas to Latinas addressing more than one of these interlocking policy issues at one time, successfully mobilized this group to sign online petitions and to get more involved in the organization to support these policies. While this finding is informative for understanding Latina political behavior and public opinion, Brower (2021) does not specify the underlying casual mechanisms that explain why these policies resonate with Latinas, other than that these policies reflect Latina’s experiences of marginalization across issue areas. Latinas are an underrepresented group in U.S. politics and policy (Bejarano, 2013; Bondy, 2015; Montoya et al., 2000). In this paper, we aim to build off the existing experimental study by Brower (2021) by using a conjoint experiment to tease out the different underlying causal mechanisms to help explain when and why Latinas are more mobilized by these types of agendas. Conducting a conjoint experiment that focuses on Latinas as a unique group, allows us to thoughtfully consider what aspects of a policy agenda are most important to them. In an increasingly diverse U.S. polity, teasing out these experiences is exceptionally important for ensuring that policymaking equitably represents all people, especially groups like Latinas, that hold multiple marginalized identities.

Authors

• Margaret Teresa Brower, Harvard University

• Amanda Sahar d'Urso, Georgetown University