Linking passive and active representation by gender: The case of child support agencies

Abstract

Does it matter whether political institutions are representative in terms of the characteristics of the people who work there? We explore this question by empirically examining whether passive representation leads to active representation in child support-enforcement bureaucracies for women. Our findings support the hypothesis that passive representation leads to active representation for women in gendered policy areas like child support. Furthermore, the link between passive and active representation only exists when the distributional consequences of the policy directly benefit women as a class. © 2004 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Inc.; all rights reserved.