Getting Women Elected is Just the First Step

With the 2018 election now in full swing, the Ms. Blog is excited to bring you content presented in conjunction with Gender Watch 2018, a project of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation and the Center for American Women and Politics. They’ll be tracking, analyzing and illuminating gender dynamics during election season—so check back with us regularly!

What a difference a year makes.

In 2017, Virginia and New Jersey held statewide and state legislative elections largely viewed as harbingers of what is to come in the 2018 congressional midterm elections. At that time, Virginia ranked 38th for women’s representation in the states; when the Virginia General Assembly convened for its annual session in January, the state ranked 22nd—thanks to the 12 women candidates elected that November as state delegates.

These gains by women are extraordinary and suggest a transformation of the Virginia legislature in many ways to make it more reflective of the Commonwealth’s changing population. At the same time, nearly all of the new women members began their service in the minority party; while the majority party advantage previously enjoyed by Republicans was significantly narrowed in the new session, Republicans would again hold a legislative majority in both the House of Delegates and Senate.

In an election year where there is the potential for women to make significant gains in representation across levels, the Virginia case reminds us that the election of women to office is but the first step of many in gaining clout and influence as decision makers. More specifically, the collective experience of freshman women delegates in the 2018 Virginia General Assembly laid bare both the opportunities and limitations of serving a first term in office.

The freshman class of the 2018 Virginia House of Delegates is a remarkable display of women’s presence, particularly for women Democrats. Of the 19 delegates newly elected in 2017, 12 are women—11 of whom are Democrats. Even more notable is the fact that nine of these women Democrats were challengers who defeated Republican incumbents, all of whom are men. The election of so many Democratic women significantly increased their presence in their party’s caucus, as they now account for 47 percent of Democratic members of the House of Delegates. Gains by Republican women were much more modest, with only one new Republican woman winning election, and while Republicans retained their majority party status, women in the party account for only 10 percent of Republican members of the House of Delegates.

Put another way: Democratic women delegates have the numbers, but not majority party status—whereas Republican women delegates have the majority party status, but not the numbers. And therein lies the challenge for many women serving in the Virginia General Assembly: the institutional rules of the game, like party majority status and seniority, determine who holds influence.

In the Virginia General Assembly, the Speaker of the House of Delegates wields significant authority over the chamber and its members, including the ability to make committee appointments for all delegates and assign all bills to committees with Republican majorities. More than half of the incoming freshmen were relegated to the Science and Technology Committee, a committee with a light workload and limited jurisdiction—and unlike in Congress, where respective party leadership assigns its own members to Committees and rewards successful challengers who unseat incumbents with prestigious committee assignments, those freshman Democratic women did not enjoy a similar reward from the Republican Speaker. Only one of them was assigned to the House Finance Committee—the lone Republican woman freshman. And regardless of party, freshmen legislators are the least senior members of committees, and do not occupy positions as committee or subcommittee chairs, which further limits their ability to exercise clout over fellow members.

Democratic women (and men) in the House also saw most of their sponsored bills killed in those Republican-dominated committees, which greatly limited their ability to advance preferred issues and represent constituent preferences with sponsored legislation. To be sure, women Democratic delegates offered a wide range of bills during the legislative session, many of which were of particular interest to women—covering topics such as paid family and medical leave, protections against sexual harassment and health insurance coverage of contraceptives—but each stalled out in committee. (Earlier this month, the House of Delegates passed a budget bill that included funds for Medicaid expansion, but the state Senate has not yet acted on the House version, and it needs to be resolved ahead of the 30 June fiscal year deadline.)

Despite these challenges, the increased presence of women delegates has led to changes within the traditionally male-dominated Virginia General Assembly. At the start of the session, Speaker Cox announced the provision of new family leave policies for Delegate staffs; the House also passed a requirement that all members and staff participate in a training program to combat sexual harassment. Two freshman delegates, Jennifer Carroll Foy and Kathy Tran, each of whom have young children, created a “parent’s caucus” for all interested members to crowd-source tips and advice for balancing parental and professional responsibilities when the legislature is in session—and plans for the new General Assembly building presently under construction now include accommodations for nursing rooms and restrooms with changing tables.

Whether women delegates in the Virginia General Assembly can continue to facilitate change within the institution and advance legislation ultimately resides with the willingness of their constituents to return them to office—and, at least for Democratic delegates, whether their party retakes the majority in future elections. Before then, the experiences of these newly elected women officeholders provide important context with which we might contemplate women’s electoral success across the U.S. this year. While much of the attention has been on the record numbers of women running and their potential to win in November, winning is just the first step toward increasing women’s political power and influence. The next step for successful women candidates will be navigating often rigid political institutions and overcoming obstacles that constrain their potential for influence.

That means that, for women in Virginia and nationwide, the work does not end on Election Day. But, thankfully, the victories don’t end there either.

 

About

Rosalyn L. Cooperman is Associate Professor of Political Science at University of Mary Washington. She earned a Ph.D. in political science from Vanderbilt University and a B.A. in political science from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her work has appeared in Congress Reconsidered, Women & Politics, and Polling America: An Encyclopedia of Public Opinion, American Political Science Review and Virginia Social Science Journal. She is currently working on a book project that examines the role of political parties and organizations in the recruitment and support of women congressional candidates.