Other Political Science Commons^™

Public Financing And The Underrepresentation Of Women In United States Elected Political Offices, Libby P. Moyer

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

Approaching the 100-year anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, women comprise approximately 51 percent of the American population but hold only 24.8 percent of state legislative seats and 19.4 percent of United States Congressional seats. The scholarly literature suggests that one contributing factor to this inequality is a real or perceived gender difference in fundraising success. My hypothesis is that state public financing programs will decrease gender inequality in state legislative offices. I examined the role campaign finance plays in gender inequality in elected office by conducting a comparative case study of the state legislatures of Minnesota and Iowa from 1975 …