Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Analyzing LES Scores of Female Legislators

• In Event: Poster Session: American Politics Research & Ideas and Institutions in American Political Thought
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: American Politics Research

Abstract

Research shows that the glass ceiling that female politicians must break through in order to secure a seat in Congress often leads to more qualified legislators (Anzia and Berry, 2011). When looking at Legislative Effectiveness Scores (LES) of female politicians in Congress, gender is significantly shown to positively affect the score (Volden et al, 2010). However, when disaggregating LES to follow the lifecycle of the bills proposed by female legislators, scores are negatively impacted. With such qualified females in office, why is there such a discrepancy between the number of bills proposed and the number of passed by these legislators? This paper explores in depth the lifespan of the specific bills that female legislators sponsor in order to get more of an understanding of the types of barriers to getting bills passed. Using ChatGPT and handcoding methods to code the content of bills proposed by female legislators and a multi-mixed method approach of text-analysis and network analysis, this project seeks to determine if the topic of the bills affect the passage likelihood or if it is more structural barriers acting as an agent.

Author

• Katie Glenn, University of Colorado Boulder