Intersectionality and Politics: Recent Research on Gender, Race, and Political Representation in the United States
Intersectionality and Politics: Recent Research on Gender, Race, and Political Representation in the United States has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Volume 28, Numbers 3/4 2006.
Intersectionality and Politics: Recent Research on Gender, Race, and Political Representation in the United States has been co-published simultaneously as Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Volume 28, Numbers 3/4 2006.
First published by
The Haworth Press, Inc.
10 Alice Street
Binghamton, N Y 139041580
This edition published 2011 by Routledge
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
711 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017 | Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
2 Park Square, Milton Park
Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN |
2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
The development, preparation, and publication of this work has been undertaken with great care. However, the publisher, employees, editors, and agents of The Haworth Press and all imprints of The Haworth Press, Inc., including The Haworth Medical Press and Pharmaceutical Products Press, are not responsible for any errors contained herein or for consequences that may ensue from use of materials or information contained in this work. With regard to case studies, identities and circumstances of individuals discussed herein have been changed to protect confidentiality. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
The Haworth Press is committed to the dissemination of ideas and information according to the highest standards of intellectual freedom and the free exchange of ideas. Statements made and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Publisher, Directors, management, or staff of The Haworth Press, Inc., or an endorsement by them.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Intersectionality and politics : recent research on gender, race, and political representation in the United States / Carol Hardy-Fanta, editor.
p. cm.
Co-published simultaneously as Journal of women, politics & policy, v. 28, nos. 3/4 2006.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7890-3666-7 (hard cover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-7890-3667-4 (soft cover : alk. paper)
1. Political participationUnited States. 2. WomenUnited StatesPolitical activity. 3. Minorities United StatesPolitical activity. 4. Pluralism (Social sciences)United States. 5. United StatesPolitics and government. 6. United StatesRace relations. 7. United StatesSocial conditions.
I. Hardy-Fanta, Carol, 1948 II. Journal of women, politics & policy.
JK1764.I68 2007
323.0420973dc22
2007033830
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carol Hardy-Fanta, PhD, is Director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at UMass Bostons John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies. She also serves as Director of the Graduate Certificate Program for Women in Politics and Public Policy at the same institution. Dr. Hardy-Fanta was one of the founding members of the Organized Section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics of the American Political Science Association, and is Co-Principal Investigator on a Ford Foundation-funded national survey of elected officials of color with a focus on gender and race. She is the author of two books: Latina Politics, Latino Politics: Gender, Culture, and Political Participation in Boston andLatino Politics in Massachusetts: Struggles, Strategies, and Prospects. She is a nationally recognized scholar on Latina/o politics and has published widely on the intersection of gender, race, and ethnicity in politics and public policy. Her policy experience includes gender/racial disparities in the health professions, welfare reform, substance abuse and criminal justice, community organization, reproductive rights, mental health, HIV/AIDS programs, and bilingual education.
Intersectionality and Politics: Recent Research on Gender, Race, and Political Representation in the United States
CONTENTS
Carol Hardy-Fanta
Carol Hardy-Fanta
Pei-te Lien
Dianne M. Pinderhughes
Christine Marie Sierra
Becki Scola
Kathleen A. Bratton
Kerry L. Haynie
Beth Reingold
Byron DAndr Orey
Wendy Smooth
with Kimberly S. Adams
Kisha Harris-Clark
Luis Ricardo Fraga
Linda Lopez
Valerie Martinez-Ebers
Ricardo Ramrez
Lisa Garca Bedolla
Jessica L. Lavariega Monforti
Adrian D. Pantoja
Tiffany Manuel
Julia S. Jordan-Zachery
Introduction
Carol Hardy-Fanta, Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies University of Massachusetts Boston
The articles in this volume, Intersectionality and Politics: Recent Research on Gender, Race and Political Representation in the United States, reflect the relatively recent but expanding interest in the application of intersectionality theory to political science. The volume also represents the first collection of research and essays that apply the concepts of intersectionality specifically to descriptive and substantive representation by elected officials of color at various levels of office, from multiple states, and with a focus on more than one racial/ethnic group. Whereas scholars have, to some degree, used intersectionality theory to examine the ways categories such as race/ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation and other markers of identity act together to produce situations in which women, and men, may become marginalized or subject to various forms of discrimination and oppression, the authors represented here demonstrate the importance of this theory for understanding political leadership of elected officials of colorespecially women.
The stimulus for this volume was a panel at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, held in Washington, DC, where it became clear that the authors were presenting papers at that panel were at the forefront of cutting-edge research in the field of intersectionality and politics. Five of the eight articles included in this volume were presented at that panel; we included two others because of their relevance to the theme of the volume. And, finally, we invited the chair and discussant to write a commentary based on her remarks at the panel. The articles underwent the journals normal peer-review process; authors then revised their papers in response to the comments provided by the anonymous reviewers.
The first section of this volume includes two articles that focus primarily on descriptive representation of elected officials of color with women of color at the center of the analysis. In Gender, Race, and Descriptive Representation in the United States: Findings from the Gender and Multicultural Leadership Project, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Pei-te Lien, Dianne M. Pinderhughes, and Christine Marie Sierra present findings drawn from the first comprehensive national database of elected officials of color in the U.S. at the beginning of the new millennium. The authors present the first profile of elected leadership that includes African Americans, Latinas/os, and Asian Americans from all states and at all levels of office: congressional, statewide, state legislative, county, municipal, and school board. The size (over 11,000 officials) and comprehensiveness of their database alone make this study unique. A variety of contextual data are also linked to each elected official.
