Democratic Party Control Reduces Gender Inequality

Bibliographic Data

ID6301152
AuthorsJ Kuk (0000-0003-0772-1110, University of Oklahoma), Zoltan L Hajnal (0000-0001-7167-780X, University of California San Diego, corresponding author), Zoltan Hajnal (University of California San Diego)
Year2021
Volume46
Issue1
Pages155-188
Publication date2021-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLegislative Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0362-9805 • E-ISSN: 1939-9162
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lsq.12316
OpenAlexW3093870475
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited61

Women earn less than men who work in the same job with the same level of experience. We know much about this gender wage gap but relatively little about its political or partisan sources. In this article, we examine the effects of party control of state government on gender inequality in income, wages, unemployment, and poverty. Employing both a regression discontinuity design and a dynamic difference‐in‐difference analysis, we find that electing a Democratic majority to the state house leads to substantial improvement in women's incomes, wages, and unemployment relative to men—especially in recent years. We also show that greater female representation in office and more liberal policymaking on policies related to women's rights could be driving that process. We find, however, fewer clear effects on poverty and less robust results for partisan control of the governor's office or the state senate. Parties and politics matter, but not always

Control (management · Democracy · Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economic inequality · Economics · Government (linguistics · Governor · Inequality · Labour economics · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Regression discontinuity design · Representation (politics · State (computer science · Unemployment · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Law

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