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theses

According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University the state of Pennsylvania ranks 39th in the nation in terms of the proportion of women serving in the state legislature. Pennsylvania has never elected a woman governor or U.S. Senator. However, women fare better at county level government. Thirty-seven percent of the countywide officials across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are women, yet 66% of the women serving in countywide government can be found in administrative positions. The paucity of women serving in Pennsylvania’s elective offices is worthy of inquiry as we know from research that women representatives offer a different voice on many public policy issues. Why are women so underrepresented? Political science has tested various variables: women’s lack of political ambition, negative gatekeeping by political parties, and gender stereotypes negative impacting women candidates, just to name a few. This dissertation focuses on the role county parties play in recruiting women candidates to run for political office in Pennsylvania. Political science has historically deemed Pennsylvania to be a strong party state that deters all newcomers to the political game. I anticipate that Pennsylvania’s political parties will still be strong, which will correlate with low levels of women’s county officeholding. In terms of recruitment efforts, I expect strong county parties to pull from insular networks that are extensions of the party leaders themselves. On the other hand, I expect weak county parties to cast a wide net for candidate recruitment and engage external networks to identify candidates. I utilize survey and interview data provided by the Pennsylvania county party chairs and vice-chairs to understand recruitment and its impact on women’s officeholding.

ETD_6465

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Dana Marie Brown

doi:10.7282/T38K7BZS

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.