Collaborative Research: Representation and the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity

这项合作研究通过汇集和整合关于种族、民族和性别的观点，在政治代表性研究方面开辟了新的天地。在过去的几十年里，美国的种族、民族和性别政治发生了巨大的变化，其中最重要的是女性人数以及担任公职的种族和少数民族人数的同步增长。这项研究考察了这些女性和/或少数族裔立法者成功或未能加强妇女、有色人种妇女和种族/少数族裔的实质性政策利益的复杂和有条件的过程。它不仅探讨了种族代表、族裔代表和性别代表既相似又不同的方式；而且还探讨了代表妇女以及各种种族和族裔少数群体的政策利益的努力如何联系在一起。因此，推动这项研究的主要问题是：女性和种族和少数民族的代表性可能如何联系起来，这些联系可能会如何受到它们发生或不发生的政治和制度背景的影响？为了解决这些问题，这项研究非常密切和广泛地研究了州议员的决策活动，包括男性和女性，所有种族和民族，跨越多个州，以及几十年来。首先，它审查了黑人女性和拉丁裔州议员提出和发起的立法(与他们的同事提案相比)，以阐明可能认同多个群体并认为自己代表多个群体利益的立法者如何参与政策制定过程的议程设置阶段。接下来，它通过研究和解释法案共同发起的模式，探索跨性别、种族和民族的立法联盟的形成。最后，这项研究调查了妇女和少数族裔立法者的存在和活动如何影响国家政策结果。特别值得关注的是，性别和种族相关政策的命运是由有色人种妇女的努力联系在一起的，还是通过这些立法机构中的妇女和/或种族少数群体的联盟联系在一起的。为了进行这项关于美国各州的代表性和种族、族裔和性别的政治的研究，首席调查员创建了三个相互关联的数据库：一个关于个别州议员及其选区的数据库，一个关于这些议员提出的法案的数据库，以及一个关于每个州和州立法机构的政治、社会经济和体制特征的数据库。为了建立这些数据库，从25个州收集了信息，从1981年开始每隔四年收集一次，一直持续到2005年。总而言之，这些州在几个重要方面代表了所有50个州，包括：妇女、非裔美国人和拉丁裔在州立法机构中的比例；政党控制(民主党或共和党)；意识形态氛围(自由、温和或保守)；以及选举竞争。向更广泛的学术界提供这些数据库，应该会促进对种族、族裔、性别和政治代表性的更多研究，因为它们在政策制定过程中、在各种历史和体制背景下都很明显。

This collaborative research breaks new ground in the study of the political representation by bringing together and integrating perspectives on race, ethnicity, and gender. The past few decades have witnessed tremendous changes in the politics of race, ethnicity, and gender in the U.S., not the least of which is the simultaneous growth in the numbers of women and of racial and ethnic minorities in public office. This study examines the complex and conditional processes by which these female and/or minority lawmakers succeed or fail to enhance the substantive policy interests of women, women of color, and racial/ethnic minorities. It explores not only the ways in which the representation of race, the representation of ethnicity, and the representation of gender are both similar and different; but also the ways in which efforts to represent the policy interests of women and of various racial and ethnic minorities are linked. Thus, the primary questions motivating this research are: how might the representation of women and of racial and ethnic minorities be linked and how might those linkages be affected by the political and institutional contexts in which they do or do not take place?To address these questions, this study takes a very close and extensive look at the policymaking activities of state legislators male and female, of all races and ethnicities, across multiple states, and over multiple decades. First, it examines the legislation proposed and sponsored by Black female and Latina state legislators (in comparison to their colleagues proposals) to shed light on how lawmakers who may identify with multiple groups, and see themselves as representing multiple group interests, participate in the agenda-setting stages of the policy making process. Next, it explores the formation of legislative coalitions across gender, racial, and ethnic lines by examining and explaining patterns in the co-sponsorship of bills. Finally, this study investigates how state policy outcomes are affected by the presence and activities of women and minority legislators. Of special concern is whether the fates of gender and race-related policies are linked by the efforts of women of color or by coalitions of women and/or racial-ethnic minorities within these lawmaking bodies.To conduct this research on representation and the politics of race, ethnicity, and gender in the American states, the Principal Investigators created three inter-related databases: one on individual state legislators and their districts, one on bills introduced by those legislators, and one on the political, socioeconomic, and institutional characteristics of each state and state legislature. To construct these databases, information was gathered from 25 states, at four-year intervals starting with 1981 and continuing up to 2005. Collectively, these states are representative of all fifty states on several important dimensions including: proportions of women, African Americans, and Latinos in the state legislature; party control (Democrat or Republican); ideological climate (liberal, moderate, or conservative); and electoral competition. The availability of these databases to the wider scholarly community should spur a great deal more research on race, ethnicity, gender, and political representation as they are manifest throughout the policy making process, within and across various historical and institutional contexts.