My dissertation advances the theory of democratic representation by separating descriptive representation from substantive representation. Although there has been a substantial amount of research on the relationship between gender and legislative representation, there are conflicting findings about the activities and effects of female legislators. The outcome variable, government spending, measures substantive representation by analyzing government spending data across several issue areas. The key question is: has the addition of women to national legislatures led to an increase in government spending in women's issue areas?
Despite the quantitative nature of the data, I employed a mixed methods approach to identify the causal mechanisms between female legislators and government spending outcomes. I constructed a substantial cross-national, time-series data set, which tracks spending in defense, education, childcare, and maternity/paternity leave spending during a 28 year period. I joined the dependent variable data with measures of the percent of women in the legislature, the presence of a strong, autonomous women's movement, the presence of a state feminist agency, the rate of female labor force participation, while also including additional covariates. Following the statistical analyses, I employed case-studies to illustrate the causal mechanisms within legislative process.
","abstract_html":"<p>My dissertation advances the theory of democratic representation by separating descriptive representation from substantive representation. Although there has been a substantial amount of research on the relationship between gender and legislative representation, there are conflicting findings about the activities and effects of female legislators. The outcome variable, government spending, measures substantive representation by analyzing government spending data across several issue areas. The key question is: has the addition of women to national legislatures led to an increase in government spending in women's issue areas? </p> <p> Despite the quantitative nature of the data, I employed a mixed methods approach to identify the causal mechanisms between female legislators and government spending outcomes. I constructed a substantial cross-national, time-series data set, which tracks spending in defense, education, childcare, and maternity/paternity leave spending during a 28 year period. I joined the dependent variable data with measures of the percent of women in the legislature, the presence of a strong, autonomous women's movement, the presence of a state feminist agency, the rate of female labor force participation, while also including additional covariates. Following the statistical analyses, I employed case-studies to illustrate the causal mechanisms within legislative process.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Tison, Jennifer Suzanne"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Campus Access Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Political Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Laura Woliver","Lee Walker"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:38:23Z","subjects":["Political Science","Social and Behavioral Sciences","comparative public policy","gender and legislators","government spending.","Legislative behavior"],"languages":[],"rights":["© 2012, Jennifer Suzanne Tison"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1797","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Laura Woliver","Lee Walker"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Tison, Jennifer Suzanne"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Political Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Campus Access Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Political Science","Social and Behavioral Sciences","comparative public policy","gender and legislators","government spending.","Legislative behavior"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© 2012, Jennifer Suzanne Tison"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1797"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["My dissertation advances the theory of democratic representation by separating descriptive representation from substantive representation. Although there has been a substantial amount of research on the relationship between gender and legislative representation, there are conflicting findings about the activities and effects of female legislators. The outcome variable, government spending, measures substantive representation by analyzing government spending data across several issue areas. The key question is: has the addition of women to national legislatures led to an increase in government spending in women's issue areas?
Despite the quantitative nature of the data, I employed a mixed methods approach to identify the causal mechanisms between female legislators and government spending outcomes. I constructed a substantial cross-national, time-series data set, which tracks spending in defense, education, childcare, and maternity/paternity leave spending during a 28 year period. I joined the dependent variable data with measures of the percent of women in the legislature, the presence of a strong, autonomous women's movement, the presence of a state feminist agency, the rate of female labor force participation, while also including additional covariates. Following the statistical analyses, I employed case-studies to illustrate the causal mechanisms within legislative process.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Female Legislators and the Power of the Purse: Does Gender Affect Government Spending? A Cross-National Analysis"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Laura Woliver","Lee Walker"],"dc:creator":["Tison, Jennifer Suzanne"],"dc:description.abstract":["My dissertation advances the theory of democratic representation by separating descriptive representation from substantive representation. Although there has been a substantial amount of research on the relationship between gender and legislative representation, there are conflicting findings about the activities and effects of female legislators. The outcome variable, government spending, measures substantive representation by analyzing government spending data across several issue areas. The key question is: has the addition of women to national legislatures led to an increase in government spending in women's issue areas?
Despite the quantitative nature of the data, I employed a mixed methods approach to identify the causal mechanisms between female legislators and government spending outcomes. I constructed a substantial cross-national, time-series data set, which tracks spending in defense, education, childcare, and maternity/paternity leave spending during a 28 year period. I joined the dependent variable data with measures of the percent of women in the legislature, the presence of a strong, autonomous women's movement, the presence of a state feminist agency, the rate of female labor force participation, while also including additional covariates. Following the statistical analyses, I employed case-studies to illustrate the causal mechanisms within legislative process.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1797"],"dc:rights":["© 2012, Jennifer Suzanne Tison"],"dc:subject":["Political Science","Social and Behavioral Sciences","comparative public policy","gender and legislators","government spending.","Legislative behavior"],"dc:title":["Female Legislators and the Power of the Purse: Does Gender Affect Government Spending? A Cross-National Analysis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Political Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Campus Access Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:38:23Z"}