Pink, Blue, and Red Waves in Old Dominion: Women in the Virginia General Assembly in the 21st Century
Overview: Women are underrepresented as candidates and officeholders in both state legislatures and Congress despite the fact that women are half of the nation’s population. According to the Center for American Women in Politics, women comprise about one-quarter of membership in Congress while the percentage of women legislators in the states varies widely from just over ten percent to over forty percent.
Virginia’s state legislature, the General Assembly, like many Southern states, has levels of women’s representation that typically put it in the lower half of state rankings. Recent state legislative elections in Virginia has seen a more diverse candidate pool for both parties with significantly more women candidates. Indeed, prior to the state’s House of Delegates elections in 2017, Virginia ranked 38th out of 50 for women’s representation. In subsequent elections Virginia’s ranking has improved to the top half of states for the number of women legislators. Virginia recently elected its first woman Speaker of the House of Delegates as well as the first female and woman of color elected as Lieutenant Governor. Even with these notable elections, women’s representation in Virginia politics is improving, but slowly. At the same time, research on legislative effectiveness in Congress by Volden and Wiseman (2014) finds that women are typically more effective legislators than their male colleagues as measured by activities such as bill co-sponsorship and consensus building activities. Using a multi-method approach, this project I consider the legislative effectiveness of women members of the Virginia General Assembly. I conduct case studies of Virginia’s ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and also voter reform initiatives passed by the Assembly. A main focus of the project includes interviews with Democratic and Republican women candidates, officeholders, and party leaders to discuss their strategies, experiences, and contributions to the Virginia General Assembly and women’s representation more broadly.