The Role of Gender in Open-Seat Elections for the U.S. House of Representatives

A substantial amount of literature exists examining the under-representation of women in the United States House of Representatives. By examining open-seat elections from 1982 through 1994, the author tests the assumption that male and female candidates receive equivalent returns for campaign resources. The research finds that a differential return for campaign expenditures does exist during this time period. Women candidates in the 1980s suffered from a diminished return for campaign resources; hence, simple parity of resources in this time period was not sufficient to ensure competitiveness. The disadvantage evidenced in the 1980s has largely disappeared in open-seat elections in the 1990s supporting the contention that the electoral environment is changing and becoming more supportive of women candidacies. Additionally, the research demonstrates that the aggregate model (which is dominant in the literature) overestimates the effect of women's campaign expenditures because it fails to make paired comparisons. The district level model pairs women candidates with their actual male opponents to directly examine the full impact of gender on the percentage of the vote received in open-seat elections to the House of Representatives.