The Dynamics of Earmark Requests for the Women and Men of the US House of Representatives

Data on the number of earmark requests made by men and women of the 111th House of Representatives provide a framework for predicting women’s substantive representation. Three main issue areas were examined: women’s health, women’s economic empowerment, and violence against women. Control variables for ideology, partisanship, race, committee member, and congressional tenure further clarify the relationship between gender and earmarks requests. These analyses of different categories of women’s issue earmark requests illustrated the complexity of women’s issues and the fluctuating effect of a representative’s gender on substantive representation.