The emergence and activities of women’s recruiting groups in the U.S.

Abstract

ABSTRACTUnlike many other countries, the U.S. has not adopted sets of laws or voluntary policies, such as quotas or “all-women short lists” in the U.K., to increase women’s representation. In lieu of official policy, an informal network of groups has grown around the need to increase the number of women candidates vying for political office in the U.S. Though researchers and the media discuss these groups often, we lack a complete picture of how many groups exist and what they do. This paper builds a descriptive profile of women’s recruitment and training in the U.S. using a new census of active women candidate groups. We highlight patterns in where they operate, partisanship, abortion litmus tests, and their participation in recruiting, training, and funding women candidates. We find that organizations operate in all states, but that these organizations are not equally accessible to all groups of women.