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The Missing Fingerprints: U.S. Women Legislators and International Development Aid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2022

Katelyn E. Stauffer Open the ORCID record for Katelyn E. Stauffer [Opens in a new window] ,
Yoshiharu Kobayashi Open the ORCID record for Yoshiharu Kobayashi [Opens in a new window] ,
Kelsey M. Martin-Morales Open the ORCID record for Kelsey M. Martin-Morales [Opens in a new window] ,
Riley Lankes ,
Tobias Heinrich Open the ORCID record for Tobias Heinrich [Opens in a new window]  and
Catherine R. Goodwin
Katelyn E. Stauffer*
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
Yoshiharu Kobayashi
Affiliation:
University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Kelsey M. Martin-Morales
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
Riley Lankes
Affiliation:
University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Tobias Heinrich
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA
Catherine R. Goodwin
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: kstauffer@sc.edu
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Abstract

There is optimism that the growing number of women in political office will reorient the focus of international politics toward more social and humanitarian issues. One basis for this optimism is the argument that women legislators hold distinct foreign policy preferences and act on them to affect changes in policy. However, we know little about gender differences in the behavior of individual legislators on these issues. This study investigates the behavior of individual legislators of the United States, one of the most important actors in international politics, in the context of development aid. Analyzing a diverse set of legislative behaviors in the U.S. Congress, we find no evidence that women legislators behave any differently than men with regard to these issues. Beyond its contribution to our understanding of the making and future of American foreign policy, this study contributes to broader debates about women’s representation and foreign policy.

Keywords

genderlegislative behaviorforeign policyforeign aidUnited States
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , June 2023 , pp. 585 - 610
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association

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