Race Gender and Political Representation

It is well established that the race and gender of elected representatives influence the ways in which they legislate but surprisingly little research exists on how race and gender interact to affect who is elected and how they behave once in office. How do race <em>and </em>gender affect who gets elected as well as who is represented? What issues do elected representatives prioritize? Does diversity in representation make a difference? <p/><em>Race Gender and Political Representation</em> takes up the call to think about representation in the United States as intersectional and it measures the extent to which political representation is simultaneously gendered and raced. Specifically the book examines how race and gender interact to affect the election behavior and impact of all individuals. By putting women of color at the center of their analysis and re-evaluating traditional single-axis approaches to studying the politics of race <em>or </em>gender the authors demonstrate what an intersectional approach to identity politics can reveal. Drawing on original data on the presence policy leadership and policy impact of Black women and men Latinas and Latinos and White women and men in state legislative office in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries each chapter shows how the politics of race gender and representation are far more complex than recurring Year of the Woman frameworks suggest. An array of race-gender similarities and differences are evident in the experiences activities and accomplishments of these state legislators. Yet one thing is clear: the representation of those marginalized by multiple intersecting systems of power and inequality is intricately bound to the representation of women of color.<br>